The Great Campaign of 2010

· Friday, October 29, 2010

WASHINGTON -- In a radio interview that aired Monday on Univision, President Obama chided Latinos who "sit out the election instead of saying, ‘We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us.'" Quite a uniter, urging Hispanics to exact political revenge on their enemies -- presumably, for example, the near-60 percent of Americans who support the new Arizona immigration law.

This from a president who won't even use "enemies" to describe an Iranian regime that is helping kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. This from a man who rose to prominence thunderously declaring that we were not blue states or red states, not black America or white America or Latino America -- but the United States of America.

This is how the great post-partisan, post-racial, New Politics presidency ends -- not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with a desperate election-eve plea for ethnic retribution. Nice.

Yet press secretary Robert Gibbs' dismay is reserved for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and the "disappointing" negativity of his admission that "the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."

McConnell, you see, is supposed to say that he will try very hard to work with the president after the election. But it is blindingly clear that nothing of significance will be enacted. Over the next two years, Republicans will not be able to pass anything of importance to them -- such as repealing Obamacare -- because of the presidential veto. And the Democrats will be too politically weakened to advance, let alone complete, Obama's broad transformational agenda.

That would have to await victory in 2012. Every president gets two bites at the apple: the first 18 months when he is riding the good will honeymoon, and a second shot in the first 18 months of a second term before lame-duckness sets in.

Over the next two years, the real action will be not in Congress but in the bowels of the federal bureaucracy. Democrats will advance their agenda on Obamacare, financial reform and energy by means of administrative regulation, such as carbon emission limits imposed unilaterally by the Environmental Protection Agency.

But major congressional legislation to complete Obama's social-democratic agenda? Not a chance. That's why McConnell has it right. The direction of the country will be determined in November 2012 when either Obama gets a mandate to finish building his "New Foundation" or the Republicans elect one of their own to repeal it, or what (by then) remains repealable.

Gibbs' disapproving reaction to this obvious political truth is in keeping with the convention that all things partisan or ideological are to be frowned upon as "divisive." This is pious nonsense. What is the point of a two-party democracy if not to present clear, alternative views of the role of government and, more fundamentally, the balance between liberty and equality -- the central issue for any democracy?

The beauty of this year's campaign, and the coming one in 2012, is that they actually have a point. Despite the noise, the nonsense, the distractions, the amusements -- who will not miss New York's seven-person gubernatorial circus act? -- this is a deeply serious campaign about a profoundly serious political question.

Obama, to his credit, did not get elected to do midnight basketball or school uniforms. No Bill Clinton he. Obama thinks large. He wants to be a consequential president on the order of Ronald Reagan. His forthright attempt to undo the Reagan revolution with a new burst of expansive liberal governance is the theme animating this entire election.

Democratic apologists would prefer to pretend otherwise -- that it's all about the economy and the electorate's anger over its parlous condition. Nice try. The most recent CBS/New York Times poll shows that only one in 12 Americans blames the economy on Obama, and seven in 10 think the downturn is temporary. And yet, the Democratic Party is falling apart. Democrats are four points behind among women, a constituency Democrats had owned for decades; a staggering 20 points behind among independents (a 28-point swing since 2008); and 20 points behind among college graduates, giving lie to the ubiquitous liberal conceit that the Republican surge is the revenge of lumpen know-nothings.

On Nov. 2, a punishing there will surely be. But not quite the kind Obama is encouraging.

My prediction: The Dems lose 60 House seats, eight in the Senate. Rangers in seven.

(c) 2010, The Washington Post Writers Group


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Comments

KN

"Democrats will advance their agenda on Obamacare, financial reform and energy by means of administrative regulation, such as carbon emission limits imposed unilaterally by the Environmental Protection Agency."

And that must be stopped. Congress must reign in these unelected czars and the damage they cause.

Hey everyone - carbon dioxide is NOT a pollutant but absolutely necessary for life on this planet.

Posted October 29, 2010 at 9:05:45 AM


Dave Newbry

Charles;

You ain't been watching the Series. I believe it's the Giants in 4 or 5.

And you're dead on about what's going to happen to the liberals next week. I just wish it didn't take an extended period of idiocy in congress to get people to hold their elected "representatives'" feet to the fire. Shame on all of us.

Posted October 29, 2010 at 12:14:38 PM


William Thornton

Too much carbon-dioxide can be a pollutant and have very detrimental effects, however.

Posted October 29, 2010 at 12:16:38 PM


Roger McBee

"... the convention that all things partisan or ideological are to be frowned upon as "divisive." I'm happy to hear someone say this, Charles, and am especially happy it's you. I'm tired of being told that what we need is more "middle-of-the-road" candidates and representatives. Since when did "middle of the road" accomplish anything but getting run over by political correctness? Where are the candidates, the representatives who have the guts to stand for a principle or belief? The only one I see is Jim DeMint. Middle of the roaders accomplish nothing but becoming "the establishment" that hold on to their seats through sickening political correctness and yea-saying. Give me someone who believes in something, who is willing to take a side and fight for it, especially if it's a constitutional conservative viewpoint! Call it "divisive" if you want, America, that's the person who gets my vote.

Posted October 29, 2010 at 12:31:26 PM


TJS

The Republican House wave should be about 75% of about 100 seats in play, about 75 seats. The wins in governor races for Republicans will be about 30 out of 37 races, resulting in 36 Republicans out of 50 governors total, or 72%.

Posted October 29, 2010 at 1:07:42 PM


KR

SAYS WHO?

Posted October 29, 2010 at 1:14:18 PM


Ron

The nonsense about too much carbon dioxide has been reputed many times. CO2 is not even a greenhouse gas and exists in the atmosphere in much smaller quantities than water vapor. The thing about CO2 causing global warming was concocted by a former professor (originally of the Scripps Institute) of Owl Gore and was later recanted by him. Gore stuck with the theory and has made billions from it.

Posted October 29, 2010 at 1:45:25 PM


karl anglin

America is not anything if it

consists of each of us. It is

something only if it consists of

all of us.---Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)

Posted October 29, 2010 at 3:15:05 PM


J Henry Jr

65, nine and who cares.

Posted October 29, 2010 at 3:46:14 PM


tony outeda

Charles, my guess is that you have some nostalgic affection for the Rangers because they once resided in Washington D.C. This confirms what I have always suspected, that the guy behind all the realistic hardboiled insights is a real softie. Sorry, nada. Giants... maybe in four.

Tony Outeda

Posted October 29, 2010 at 5:10:57 PM


jksisco

Obama and his merry band of Progressives are the divisive ones, carefully crafting rhetoric to slime American citizens whose only fault was in not buying into "Hope and Change". I pray for a veto proof majority to impede the whiner-in-chief.

Posted October 29, 2010 at 7:24:32 PM


R in Portland

CO2 is .038% of the atmosphere...you do the math.

Posted October 29, 2010 at 10:13:51 PM


real_patriot

After the 2012 election two things should be purchased by the Conservatives. 1) Very Large hammer to smash the tele-prompter. 2) a HUGE shredder to eradicate anything that has Obama's name or signature on it. With a SHREDDER anything is repeal-able. Depending on how bad things are in 2012 we might do a Sonny Soprano and toss a few communists in the shredder.

Posted October 30, 2010 at 12:24:17 AM


Clarence De Barrows

If the liberals had any understanding of the American people THEY would have smashed the teleprompter long ago. Obama doesn't understand the American narrative, but surely some of his lackeys would know how ridiculous he comes across to thinking everyday Citizens when he purveys his truisms with imperiously oscillating head plucking gems of wisdom from a reflecting screen. Shades of "Big Brother".

Posted October 30, 2010 at 1:54:05 PM


Howard Reed

Hello America,

The magic question is, after January 11, 2011 will we see 'San Fran Nan' Pelosi sitting on the back bench where she can't cause anymore damage, or will she resign in disgust shortly after the results of next Tuesday are final.

My bet is that the Devil Wears Prada' and she will swallow her pride and stay believing that she will come back to power before she loses all her teeth, she becomes hard of hearing and dementia sets in.

If the Tea Party gets stronger and stays focused on the Washington establishment as they promised, you are going to see the insiders implode one at a time. They are creatures of habid you see and can't help being politically selfish.

Let's hope that Sen. DeMint and Rep Bachmann can gather the Tea Party electees and all other GOP freshmen under their leadership to form a Tea Party caucus to be the enforcement wing of this great Sons of Liberty movement.

It was discussed on last weeks Glenn Beck show with three true conservatives in the GOP, the two representatives up for election. It will have to be done to keep the swollen heads in D.C. reigned in.

Over the years we have seen the old saying about power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely played out among career politicians. This is the year we begin to impose our own term limits, before a black ops team do it for us via a Vince Flynn novel. I would rather them suffer at the hands of the electorate than at the hands of people that play for keeps. There is just something un American and to dark about that kind of Term Limits, although it sounds great.

The Turban Torpedo

Posted October 30, 2010 at 8:45:20 PM


Nick Brokhausen

This election is the start of the cleansing needed to bring Congress back to what it was intended to do;represent the American people. The Tea Party is the manifestation of the silent majority finally awakening to the fact that both parties have betrayed the trust of the people for over fifty years. In the main the rejection of the liberal socialism and progressive agendas is the target of that ire and consternation, but underlying is the absolute disgust that most Americans feel towards politics and the vaudvillian stage that Washington and many state legislatures have sunk to. Overwhelmingly this movement has embraced the idea that one does not need to be an attorney, millionaire, nor political insider to merit a seat representing a constituency. Simple plain common sense and direct from the heart, beliefs that spring from the tenets of the contitution, are replacing spin doctors and the sleek, oiled presentations from the likes of Carvell and Rove, as the mantra for good governance. Huzzah for the common man.

Posted November 1, 2010 at 12:55:39 PM


Paoli Pete

Jeez! Krauthammer 2012!!!!!

Posted November 1, 2010 at 4:46:18 PM


Dave Newbry

OK Charles, I'm back. Giants in 5!!!!!!!

Toldja!

Posted November 2, 2010 at 12:29:47 AM


BT

Charles - spot on regarding the political race. And, I predict the Giants in five.

As GK Chesterton once said - "I prefer the Irish prophets. They prefer to prophecy after the event".

Posted November 2, 2010 at 9:01:11 AM


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