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Friday, March 29, 2024

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I Was So Wrong.


I thought that Mitt Romney would be the President-Elect this morning. Boy, was I wrong!

President Obama defeated Mitt Romney last night. In so doing the President solidified Nate Silver as somewhat prescient. Other pollsters, especially Gallup, have egg on their faces. The country broke about 51-49 for the President, who has four more years. Now the post-mortem begins.

First of all, the people did not defeat Governor Romney because he was insufficiently conservative. The country is obviously no longer “center-right,” but is instead drifting steadily leftward into the Euro-socialism that has all but destroyed that continent.

The people did not defeat Governor Romney because Congressman Ryan was a bad choice; in fact, the Congressman was an excellent choice and in my opinion kept this race close.

The people did not defeat Governor Romney because he is not telegenic. The argument can be cogently made that the Governor performed excellently in the debates, and in so doing, put the presidency within reach. The governor looked and acted presidential, and did so more convincingly than the President.

The people defeated Governor Romney purely and simply, as O’Reilly put it last night, because the President gives them things. The people are terrified of the financial reckoning that has come upon us, and have chosen to accept the fairytale that one can “tax the rich” to make the thousands of billions of dollars of deficits racked up year by year just “go away.”

The people have been successfully co-opted by the leftists, and enough of them have been placed into a state of dependency that they fear the loss or decrease of their share of the dole. When Governor Romney plainly stated that spending would have to be cut from its insane levels, these people recognized that their handout would likely decrease. And hence, those people became instant Obama voters; they chose to punt the problem down the line and keep their handouts.

The Leftists have co-opted African-Americans, Hispanics and (to an extent) women, with promises of handouts of money, citizenship, preferential treatment, and catering to pet issues. The Left’s blatant pandering has been wholly successful. Patching the Left’s traditional extreme environmentalists and radical cause activists into these less-extreme constituencies has successfully retained the White House and the Senate for the Leftists.

We have precious little in which to take solace. The GOP holds the House, and may increase its majority by a hair. That spells the end of Nancy Pelosi as a power broker in DC. The GOP may stand as a bulwark against some of the Left’s ridiculous agenda. Don’t expect a massive tax hike on the “rich” (read: productive). However, don’t expect the Bush tax cuts to last any longer.

The Hispanic vote takes it as discriminatory that we treat those who have broken the law to enter the country as if they have broken the law. I would expect that the GOP would abandon a tough anti-illegal position – slandered by the Left as “anti-Immigration” – and come up with something similar to the DREAM Act. The GOP will be looking for a way to maintain its coalition while finding a way to make itself more appealing to the Hispanic vote than the Left. An aside: Marco Rubio as Vice President would not have helped the Hispanic vote.

The GOP will refuse to enact outlandish spending bills, resulting in the Left using brinksmanship to attempt to force capitulation in the House. Expect showdowns threatening government shutdown.

Expect the Left to enact extreme environmentalist policies via regulation where the President and his cronies cannot gain capitulation. Expect the end of coal-fired power plants and a massive depression in coal country. Expect regulations designed to ban fracking, and the booms in the Dakotas, Ohio and Pennsylvania to be converted to depressions. Any attempt by the Congress to preserve the economic viability of these regions to be vetoed, if even it passes the Senate. And if the congress passes something and overrides a veto, don’t expect the president to simply heed the people’s will as expressed by their representatives. This president has shown a propensity to rule by fiat when he cannot obtain the Congressional approval the Constitution envisions. I expect much more of this.

Yet, the GOP maintains enough of a presence in the Senate to filibuster all Leftist court appointments. Hopefully, the Right will protect the courts from all forms of left-leaning ideology, which is repugnant to the Constitution in all of its respects.

Some think that the President will “reach out” to the GOP in order to craft a bipartisan solution to the country’s problems. History teaches us that this is highly unlikely. This president has historically dictated what he wanted, and if he did not get what he wanted, he found a way to overrule the people’s elected representative by fiat. I expect this President to attempt to consolidate his power to a level approaching that of a king.

So there is no hope. Or is there?

The Left has nobody to succeed President Obama. Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton will be in their 70s in 2016. The GOP, on the other hand, has a gigantic bench of candidates. Ryan/West 2016? Ryan/Rubio? Palin/Jindal? Rice/Rubio? The list goes on. Our only problems are: (1) The country may not be intact in 2016; and (2) President Obama may attempt to seize power.

The stock markets are falling. The economy is about to be ruined. Yesterday was a horrible day for our country. I was so wrong.