Criticize him, get pissed off, become disaffected. But do not ever lose sight of the fact that there’s no politician more capable of leading America through this period of mindless political pandering and brinkmanship than Barack Obama. My support for him is as strong as ever and, despite all of the kvetching by progressives and demonizing by conservatives, I predict he’ll be reelected in a Reagan-style landslide.
(“In support of Barack Obama,” The iPINIONS Journal, August 12, 2011)
Enough said?
UPDATE
(Wednesday, 7:20 am)
Actually, Obama’s victory was so decisive that I thought it best to leave all of the commentary to those who now find themselves in the humbling, and in many cases embarrassing, position of having to explain why they predicted his defeat.
But since so many of you are already clamoring for more from me, here are just a few observations:
- Never before in the history of politics has so much been spent (over $1 billion) to achieve so little as the Republican Party and its super PACs spent to make Obama “a one term president.”
-
Karl Rove personifies this abject and obscene waste of money. He revels of course in the dubious distinction of being “George W. Bush’s brain.” And, to his credit, he managed to get that dunce elected president of the United States … twice. But his reputation now lies in tatters. Because he convinced a bunch of rich fools that, if they gave him hundreds of millions of dollars, he could buy the election for them by doing to Obama what he did to Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. And he only compounded his humiliation by throwing a hissy fit on live TV last night, pleading in vain with FOX News for over 30 minutes to hold off calling Ohio for Obama; notwithstanding that FOX (and every other network) had already called not just Ohio but the entire election for him. (For the record, Obama won eight of the nine all-important swing states.)
- Apropos of high-profile pundits who got it so wrong, I urge you to switch the channel the next time you see the likes of Rove, Charles Krauthammer, Dick Morris, Michael Barone, Newt Gingrich and George Will spouting their partisan drivel about American politics. That these are reputedly the most informed Republicans/conservatives should disabuse you of the impression that nincompoops like Donald Trump are the only ones living in a parallel universe.
Incidentally, here is the question FOX News anchor Megyn Kelly put to Rove last night (when he kept insisting that he had numbers showing that Romney could still win Ohio) that explains much of the anti-Obama delirium that passes as political punditry:
Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better?
But here is the more relevant question: is there any wonder why people who rely on FOX for their news and information are so clueless and misinformed?
- Many of these pundits are now trying to wipe the egg off their faces by claiming that Obama has no mandate. But, to give you a sense of how blinded by prejudice/racism they are, just bear in mind that these are the same pundits who hailed the “indisputable” mandate Bush won in 2000 even though he mustered just 271 electoral votes and lost the popular vote to Gore 47.9 to 48.4 percent.
By instructive contrast, Obama captured 332 electoral votes last night and won the popular vote 50.6 to 47.8. Of course, they are also proffering all manner of excuses – ranging from the politically specious (Romney was not conservative enough) to the politically expedient (Hurricane Sandy threw Obama a lifeline – allowing him to look more presidential and bipartisan); but none of them are worthy of comment.
- Political TV ads are a cancer in American politics: there are far too many of them (inured to the law of diminishing returns); they are produced far more often to defame than to inform (negative ads are more “effective” than positive ones); and they are to TV stations what Christmas toys are to commercial retailers.
Unfortunately, the confluence of freedom of speech, free-market forces and other rich fools like the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson are such that these ads will continue to metastasize, interminably.
- From the founding of the American republic, old White men have been the dominant and most influential force in politics. Well, here’s to the Obama (“minority-majority”) coalition of White women, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and young people for relegating them to the dustbin of history as this seminal force.
With that, I refer you to my related commentaries, which delineate not only how I accurately predicted the outcome of this election but also the many reasons why Obama’s victory is so warranted..
God Bless America!
Related commentaries:
In support…
Obama vs. Romney…
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Thursday, at 1:47 am