“…too big to cry, and far too badly hurt to laugh.” – Abraham Lincoln, November 4, 1862
In the 1862 midterm elections, the Republican Party of President Abraham Lincoln suffered significant losses. Fueled largely by dissatisfaction with the lack of progress being made in the Civil War, concerns that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was too radical, and the recent and first-in-U.S.-history collection of an income tax, the Republicans lost 22 seats in the House of Representatives (direct election of Senators did not begin until the passage of 17th Amendment in 1913.)
The Republicans managed to maintain a slim majority in Congress, but the defeat and the message of voter frustration was profound. The day after the midterms, the president was asked how he felt. Replied Lincoln, “Somewhat like that boy in Kentucky, who stubbed his toe while running to see his sweetheart. The boy said he was too big to cry, and far too badly hurt to laugh.”
Today, President Obama expressed a similar candid sense of sadness, describing yesterday’s midterm elections that turned control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans as a”shellacking” and adding, “It feels bad.” But he can take some solace in some prominent examples of American history. Two years after Lincon’s midterm disappointment, he won reelection in a landslide. In much more modern times, Ronald Reagan’s Republican Party and Bill Clinton’s Democratic Party also suffered huge losses in their first term midterms (1982 and 1994 respectively), but each of them cruised to solid reelection victories in 1984 and 1996.
In the case of Lincoln, personal steadfastness and difficult but meaningful progress in the Civil War were the key factors leading to his second term. Reagan and Clinton also displayed impressive political perseverance in the face of congressional opposition and each benefited from an improving economy. Should the next two years feature the proof of presidential mettle by Obama, a drop in the unemployment rate, and the absence of a terrorist attack, it is very possible–even likely–that the 2010 midterm elections will be remembered as the stubbed toe of Obama’s presidency.
