Roy:
I think you’ve missed the point. If a successful campaign foreshadows a successful term, any candidate with a successful campaign (and thus, every president) should have a successful term. As we know, this is not true. If you choose to use this method of extrapolation (successful campaign = successful term), you must remember that it is a relative comparison — Bush Sr.’s campaign success is only success relative to the campaign run by Dukakis. While Bush Sr.’s presidency may not have been a “success”, it will likely be considered a success if compared to a Dukakis presidency.
More usefully, instead of being used to divine success in office, campaigns can be useful in that they show indications of the candidates’ possible strengths and weaknesses.
