Decline Haunting Obama, America

E.J. Dionne, Washington PostAmerican decline is the specter haunting our politics. This could be President Obama's undoing -- or it could provide him with the opportunity to revive his presidency. Fear of decline is an old American story. Declinism ran rampant in the late 1970s and early '80s. Stagflation, the Iranian hostage crisis, anxiety over Japan's then-commanding economy and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan all seemed to be symbols of a United States no longer in control of its destiny.

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