Oldtimers-¿When has the incumbent party ever run on "reform"?

[underpants]

I am reminded of Charles Durning's character in "O Brother Where art Thou" when he is having a strategy session over lunch.

paraphrased

Junior O'Daniel "You could run as a reformer"

(long delay)

Pappy O'Daniel (flogging Junior with his straw hat) "I can't be a reformer I'M THE INCUMBENT!!!"



Okay so now we have a party that has had control of the House for 10 years and the Senate for 4 of the last 5 and the White House* and NOW they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar that they made and now they are going to be the reformers.....is that the sandwich we are all supposed to take a bite out of?

Any oldtimers or very studious types know of another such incidence of the incumbent running on a reform platform?

[blm]

1. Never. But,they didn't control most broadcast media at any other time

the way the GOP controls it for the last ten years.

[asjr]

2. That is the problem. The media have become

the government to many people since that is the main outlet for "news" today. And they do it their way.

[Ignacio Upton]

3. Actually it was something like:

Jr.: "Maybe we could get us some of that REE-form!"
Pappy while hitting him with hat: "How am I gonna run on reform when I'm the damn incumbent/"

In the movie, Pappy was re-election because his opponent, Homer Stokes (who was leader of the state's KKK) didn't like the Soggy Bottom Boys, while Pappy embraced them to gain political traction.

....Anyway, we as a collective party are not Homer Stokes, and we can't let the public buy into the idea of the GOP being the "reform" party. We should have been saying this ever since last January: "You guys control everything now. If anything goes wrong, don't coming crawling to us." Remember how they ran ads during the Social Security privatization debate asking why the Democrats aren't having their own proposal? Remember how they tried to blame Hurricane Katrina on us? They NEED the Democrats to blame. Clinton is gone. So is Gore. So is Daschle. The Democratic Party is their Emmanuel Goldstein! They engage in two minutes hate in order to motivate the base. Fact is that they control everything, and just because they can't get all of their agenda passed (Democratic Presidents often had trouble dealing with Congress when it was controlled by their own party because of conservative Dixiecrats, most notably FDR, Truman, and Clinton. Today's Republicans are even more disciplined, but the national Republicans still bitch.)

[Vickers]

4. Hahahaha, I was coming in here to say Pappy O'Daniel!

:spank:

It *is* a bizarre concept, which is exactly why the Coen Brothers used it.

*snaps fingers*

Ahnuld is The Lone Biker of the Apocalypse! :P

[zbdent]

5. Wasn't Durning one of the speakers at the D-Day commemoration

a few years back? That damn librul hollywood . . .

[underpants]

6. Yep

http://www.pbs.org/memorialdayconcert/wwii/durning.html