Oh well. At least I predicted it.
A president has now been re-elected by having a horrible record behind him and no workable agenda in front - no way that can be good. He can thank a press and media that are either corrupt or just too far left in their sympathies to notice the difference between objectivity and propaganda - that's really not good. And he can thank a left wing electoral base - a base in love with big gov't, big dept, friendly to a naive and ruinous foreign policy, apparently entirely ignorant of business matters and it would appear still so limited in perspective and understanding as to think it sensible to vote for a black man simply because he's a black man - a base it would seem that is now just barely large enough to get a guy re-elected who had absolutely no right being re-elected.
This is all bad. Some will try and blame Romney, but I don't see that. A candidate better equipped to deal with media bias might have had a better chance, but that's not clear. The country is split right down the middle with one side having a very different set of priorities and view of the way forward than the other.
I just don't see how this doesn't get ugly - maybe not next week or next month, but six months from now, a year - for it not to get ugly Obama would have to make a sincere move to the center and I see absolutely no chance of that happening - he'll make some phony gestures of course to beguile an ignorant public, but nothing sincere. [and even if he shocks me and does move to a reasonable center, the Benghazi scandal could blow all that out of the water and cut this second term off at the knees - although, if I was to play optimist here, Benghazi may be such a dangerous threat to Obama that he feels he has no choice but to play ball with the GOP house in order to try and control it - that's my best shot at optimism - well, there is another alternative here: the house GOP backs down - since Ryan will be the voice and face of this house opposition I see this option as unlikely - but the one thing Obama is good at is dirty politics - like I said he'll roll some phony gestures of moderation out there and he'll have the press on his side to sell it all as real - it can be tough to beat a rigged game like that]
One thing for sure, republicans better figure out by 2014 how to put forward senate candidates who can win [Brown gets a pass here - he was a good candidate and lost because the far left is just as idiotic as the far right - Warren was an atrociously bad candidate who was caught in an egregious lie and still won because of course she's one of them] - putting up these ultra right wing wackos that keep costing them senate seats is a real big hole in their game - republicans would control both houses of congress by now if it wasn't this string of awful senate candidates. Akin would be the poster child for this problem - it's one thing to make a grossly ignorant statement, it's another thing altogether to not have the wherewithal to comprehend how ignorant it is and know that you have no choice now but to drop out of the race - that was truly astounding and I said at the time possibly bad enough to lose Romney the election by costing him a vital 2-3% of the female vote.
The mantle of responsibility to carry the battle forward now falls to Ryan and Rubio - they're gonna have to be very good otherwise I don't see how the country avoids over the next four years falling deeper into a hole there may be no getting out of.
