The American public really starts to dislike a president after six, seven, eight years. They want change, they know they're not going to get it from the incumbent, and they suspect that the incumbent's sidekick is also not going to bring it about,
I think that's one of the things that made people start thinking differently about Vice President Bush in early 1988, where they started to see him come out on his own, become his own man, win a few,
Americans may rally around a president when he sends troops to war but not when he sends them the bill.