Time for a Change

Someone yesterday told me that Dino Rossi was copying Obama by saying "it's time for a change." At first I didn't get the point: they just said, did you notice that Rossi's campaign slogan is "It's time for a change"? does that sound famillear?

Yes, it did, but I didn't get the point. The point was, they later said, that Rossi copied Obama.

Of course, anyone who follows politics and is older than The Simpsons knows that this phrase is used by pretty much every candidate running against an incumbent party or candidate. Clinton used it against Bush 41 in 1992. Dukakis used it against Bush four years earlier. Nixon used it against Humphrey in 1968.

So really, I guess Obama copied Nixon.

Calls for change from politicians are nothing unique; on the contrary, it's rare that a challenger to the incumbent party or candidate does not call for change. As many have said of late, every election of a new candidate is inherently about change, so Americans are getting change no matter whether the elect McCain or Obama. The question is, of course, what's going to be changed, and to what.

Washingtonians get change whether they elect Rossi or Gregoire, too: if they elect Rossi they get reductions in spending and better management of the state, and if they elect Gregoire they unleash all the liberal policies that she's been -- by her and the Democrats' own admission -- holding back for the last few years.