The Era Of Big Government Is Over

Could it be that, election results notwithstanding, conservatives are making progress with their small government argument? Deep in the Times reporting of exit polls I find this nugget:

Significantly, the electorate’s view of the government’s role in the economy has shifted away from Mr. Obama’s call for a kind of public-private partnership, and toward Mr. Romney’s hands-off, free-market platform.

In November 2008, when the country was floundering in the worst recession since the Depression, Election Day surveys of voters found that 51 percent of them wanted government to do more to intervene while 43 percent said it was doing too many things better left to businesses. Now, after four years of government activism, those numbers have flipped.

Well, that is a pebble upon which we can build a new Republican majority. Ross Douthat has thoughts on that.

FWIW, Obama described his fantasy agenda to the Des Moines Register on October, although one questions whether he has earned anything like a mandate.

Comments

[Rob Crawford]

I dunno. I just have this feeling I'm going to be in a coffee shop and see some guy in an Obama t-shirt stand up and start singing about how the future belongs to him.

[Threadkiller]

The era of The Constitution is over.

From Iggy on a previous thread:

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/11/07/video-was-last-nights-big-winner-marco-rubio/

If the key to success is total abdication of our sovereignty, then let it rip.

[OCBill]

For those who haven't noticed, Obama doesn't need a mandate. He can rule by decree (executive order), and neither of the other two branches are willing or able to stop him.

If the EPA can define carbon dioxide as a pollutant event though it's a natural byproduct of respiration and necessary food for plants and trees, what exactly is outside his reach?

The administrative state is so large and powerful now, especially with ObamaCare, that legislation is only needed for window dressing.

Mandate. Yeah, right.

[matt]

117,000,000 votes were cast for President. The difference was 2.2% between the candidates. Hardly a mandate.

Obama gamed the electoral college well and pandered shamelessly to his base. If one looks at the county by county results, the Red/Blue divide is amazingly stark.

We lost this one. It hurts. But if this SOB continues to steer the Titanic at full speed into the waves maybe enough people will realize there is a limit to free stuff.

[C.R.]

This is my favorite post-mortem so far. Very down to earth, practical advice from Helen Smith as things continue to get worse:

It is also imperative to make connections with those of a similar political persuasion not just for the social aspect, but for financial and legal ones. As the economy continues to do worse (and it will), we need to lean on each other for support, work, encouragement and even legal help. Given the press and the liberal’s penchant for making those on the right into pariahs, our jobs, reputations, academic freedom and economic well-being are often on the line. Because we tend to be more individualistic, we are often left to fend for ourselves in these arenas. Don’t let that happen.

If someone on the right has a business, support it if it is worthwhile. If they need help defending their reputation, jump in. If an angry professor is isolating and belittling a conservative in the classroom or a public forum, speak up. A group of two is better than one, and more is better. If you find yourself in a situation where you need help, ask for it. If you see another conservative or libertarian in trouble, even if it is just in a blog post, do something. Defend them, fight back, and support your fellow political travelers, because if you won’t, who will?

[Danube of Thought]

.

[narciso]

The Jonathan Haidt piece, in the Times, was a perfect illustration of "Tim Blair's law'

[Bio]

It was Obama's great job on Sandy that allowed his leadership to finally shine through. That thunderstorm is responsible for more damage than most people realize. 3 years and 9 months of absolute failure offset by one photo op.

[Thomas Collins]

The problem is many articulate free market principles and then vote for Obama. When I vigorously disagree with my truly leftist friends, I give them credit for voting consistently with their ideological positions. What burns me up are professional class types in the Bay State that profess free market principles (to listen to them talk, you would think they were Ayn Randians) and then they vote for Obama.

[derwill]

What is Time Blair's law?

[cathyf]

My best friend from high school, who used to be incredibly sensible, is a raving hating prog now. The really sad thing is that she has a 20-yr-old daughter with autism, and she just signed her daughter's death warrant. Medical care for the socially useless will be the first thing to go.

My death warrant, too -- you know Obamacare won't keep paying for thyroid biopsies for me every year or two. Or the thyroid ultrasounds that monitor the size of my nodules. So it will be take the risk of thyroid cancer, or have the thyroid removed. I barely function as it is with a limping-along thyroid, and after I can't work it'll be the Death Panels for me...

You really wonder about all those "Good Germans" who watched their neighbors get hauled off to the death camps and didn't flinch.

[Chris]

Great news! President three-put gets a mulligan on four years of private sector destruction. Surely he won't do it again after reading these exit poll entrails.

[derwill]

--3 years and 9 months of absolute failure offset by one photo op.--

That is because, sadly, more people than not are stupid. It has always been that way. Look back on all the catastrophes that have hit civilizations throughout history and the roots causes turn out be people behaving stupidly.

[NK]

Debt Limit hit in December--

NO NEW DEBT!

[narciso]

Tim Blair, posited that all the ideological craziness, left, islamist, et al, would all join together, Haidt, says there is no external threat, hello Benghazi, except for AGW, hello Sandy.

[Danube of Thought]

I plan to enjoy a life of leisure while continuing to deploy my manifold artifices to avoid taxation.

[cathyf]

Debt Limit hit in December--

NO NEW DEBT!

Al Qaeda sets off multiple terror attacks in January, demands that we overthrow the constitution and adopt sharia law. We won't be able to borrow any money to fight back.

[Clarice]

Cathy, do you know of any breakdown in the Catholic vote? Given the church's position on the HHS regs, I'm curious to know whether it had much of an effect on voting.

[cathyf]

The other thing is these pretty young fresh-out-of-journalism-school women. When they finish helping their friends take over, I'll just be a fat, ugly, old woman in a burkha -- but their friends will thoroughly enjoy doing to them what they did to Lora Logan.

And then my gay friends -- they'll just be dead, though.

[Caro's iPad]

Gag, Hatch is droning on about how he worked across the aisle with Ted K.

188 new citizens. Some will be makers and some will be takers, I fear.

(From naturalization ceremony in SLC)

[NK]

suspend food stamp and Medicaid payments while we fight a hot war with AQ-- NO NEW DEBT

[cathyf]

I haven't seen any data, but I expect that the Catholic vote did exactly what the Obama-ites planned on when they launched the contraception issue. For 4-1/2 decades, there has been an uneasy don't-ask-don't-tell truce in the Church about contraception, and the mandate was designed to fracture the Church right along that fault line -- people who listen about contraception leave the Church, while people who don't listen, don't listen -- so they don't listen on the religious freedom arguments, either.

The Church was a huge barrier to them in Eastern Europe, and a big reason why the Soviet Union fell. In order to get the real cost savings in health care you have to not spend any significant money on actual health care for anyone but the nomenklatura, and cutting off health care for the vast majority requires getting the Catholic Church OUT of providing health care -- because we will insist on treating people who haven't paid off the right politicians. The health care mandate is designed to get the Church OUT of the health care business, by forcing us to sell out to secular organizations which can be controlled politically.

[derwill]

--I plan to enjoy a life of leisure while continuing to deploy my manifold artifices to avoid taxation.--

Me, too, DoT. I'm self-employed, but I'm doing what I do for the love it more than anything else as money and material possessions for their own sake has never been all that important to me, and I've been thinking about sliding into retirement anyway. So I'm going Galt as much as possible and doing my bit to starve the beast.

I'm also going to start collecting on my SS, since it won't be around much longer anyway.

[Rick Ballard]

Clarice,

The exits don't provide splits going deep enough to distinguish between observant and non-observant Catholics. Pre-election polling had observant Catholics tracking (or leading) weekly church goers (57-40 R) but the total Catholic polling showed it 53-47 O.

[NK]

OT-- TomM-- congrats on returning to full interenet and power-- just in time for today's 34F light snow weather, and the Nor'easter this evening. Falling tree limbs to follow.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--The Era Of Big Government Is Over--

Federal outlays were approximately $1.4 trillion when when Bill Clinton said that and are now approximately $3.6 trillion.

[hit and run]

Rick:
but the total Catholic polling showed it 53-47 O.

Hmmmm. CNN's exits show 50-48 for O.

[NK]

RickB- don't sweat it-- it's the women. women voters are poisoining the electorate. damn 19th Amendment.

[Frau Pariser]

DoT - could you be talked into a private how-to newsletter to friends?

I'm listening to Dennis Prager. He is just the right thing for me today. He's emphasizing that the Republicans voted for the United States. It's clear to me that the other side voted for the United Interest Groups of America. Dennis recommends grieving but then becoming angry, active and confronting the other side.

Amusing: Dem women voting in the name of freedom for *their* genitalia and then voting in CA to impose mandatory use of condoms for *men* in the porn industry.

[Try hang gliding]

Someone may have already thrown this out there, but I wonder if a version of the "Bradley Effect" contributed to what happened last night. Call it the "Joseph Smith, jr Effect." Romney got less votes than McCain. Perhaps a lot of voters that told pollsters that they would vote for him ultimately diidn't because of his religion?

[derwill]

What is the point of all these conservative pundits saying that Obama has no mandate. Haven't they figured out by now that he don't need no stinkin' mandate?

[Threadkiller]

From the other thread:

" In updated national exit poll, Obama won Hispanics 71-27 over Romney. Holy bazoli"

Did you believe these Hispanics are secret conservatives that voted for Obama because he is a minority?

WTF kind of plan is it to run a Hispanic conservative, then?

Krauthammer is an asshole.

[Clarice]

Didn't dudu call me moronic for reporting the market was tumbling? Yes he did..and yet:

Major US markets in post-election freefall as Dow tumbles
more than 300 points
(Fox News) Wall Street Selloff Intensifies

[Jim Ryan]

NO NEW DEBT!

NK, the left has defined the "fiscal cliff" as it's opposite: not raising the debt limit.

[Dave (in MA)]

The morning shift at MarketWatch must have left. "Europe fears" is now "fiscal cliff".

[Mike Huggins]

Forward!

[NK]

JimR-- I understand-- the best way to start back on the long road is to attack the Left's addiction to spending and the source of that spending-- the debt. No new debt? The Left can only spend $2.8 Trillion (only!!) of current tax receipts (including the end of bush rates and not waiving payroll taxes) this year. Let's start with that. 51% of voters will scream-- FUCKEM. No new debt.

[Frau Pariser]

OTOH, TK - consider that the only, I repeat only, tough questions Obama was asked were in Spanish.
Curious?
I did cringe yesterday at the headline in the local Spanish language newspaper which commanded folks to cast su vota.

Isn't running conservative Hispanics like running conservative blacks? Do you consider that different?

[rse]

cathy-good synopsis on healthcare. I have a sil who has a child with cerebral palsy. She insists that with Ocare she will finally get what Medicaid would not pay for. No but by the time she realizes that . . .

I am mulling what I know and do think there is a way forward for Reps at the state level who build on what is really going on and what its implications are. I will write it up tomorrow. Coalition building in fact. And then use the state vetting of the vision to build a national following. All this control over manufacturing is designed in part to be able to steer, or deny, locations and thus that availability of "good paying jobs."

[Rick Ballard]

"Perhaps a lot of voters that told pollsters that they would vote for him ultimately diidn't because of his religion?"

"A lot of voters" is unsustainable conjecture. Those who showed up and voted appear to have conformed to national polling data within the MoE. Those who chose not to show up may have just been demonstrating the same contempt for the electoral process as that which Congress has so richly earned. They weren't spitting on Governor Romney. It's the oligarchy (including BOzo) taking a spit shower, not any particular oligarch.

[Caro's iPad]

Now playing "Proud to be an American"....

[Mike Huggins]

Heckuva of a job, Craigy.

[Jim Ryan]

This is the line: "If we can keep raising the debt limit without rigid ideologues trying to stop us, then we can keep spending and avoid the fiscal cliff."

How can an average member of the American electorate sort through that sort of assault on his mind and language?

[Dublindave]

"Didn't Dudu call me moronic for reporting the market was tumbling? Yes he did.. and yet:"

Sweety, I would never call you "moronic". You're a brilliant, insightful, charming woman filled with compassion and strength.

I raise a glass of Jameson to your beauty and I curse any man who insults you!

[Frau Pariser]

Your 1:10 is really good.

Dennis Prager related asking an audience what had put us where we are. Someone in the audience shouted, "Barack Obama." Dennis said no, it was that children had not been taught what it is to be an American.

(I emailed Prager again about your blog. He's been busy but he needs to connect with you.)

[Try hang gliding]

I did write that post knowing that a lot of people in the know think that the "Bradley Effect" is bunk. I'm just having a hard time understanding how McCain out performed Romney.

[Frau Pariser]

That really boggles the mind, Try hang gliding.

[Jim Eagle]

I guess no one won the JMH election sweepstakes.

[Bio]

With Executive Orders, Barry does not need the Senate anyway, but just in case...

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that he will try to push through a change to Senate rules that would limit the GOP’s ability to filibuster bills."

Read more: Reid moves to limit GOP filibusters - Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/7/reid-moves-limit-gop-filibusters/#ixzz2BYvdWeYs
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

[derwill]

One thing I will have to say is that while I worked and prayed for a Romney victory, I did not share the confidence that others had here that he would be able to save us from ourselves. It became pretty evident by September that we would not take the Senate, and without both bodies of congress there was no hope that the bold measures required to right our economy and the looming entitlement crises were going to pass. Yes, he promised to unlock energy production and lift the crushing government regulations that are stymying productivity, but the enviros and identity liberals would have immediately blocked everything he tried with law suits and liberal judges would have granted injunctions and that would've been that. And the media would have done to him what they did to Bush, so that by the end of his term half of his own party would've been convinced he was the devil incarnate, and incompetent and stupid to boot.

Obama is also doomed to failure, though, in that our current course--which is his course--is unsustainable. Systems are going to start to fail right and left, as evidenced already by the current failures occurring in State Island, etc. What conservatives need to do is stand up and shout from the rooftops every time these failures occur: WE TOLD YOU SO, SUCKERS!

[Jim Eagle]

My pastor was beside himself today at mass. He is young (40) and raised in Jacksonville. Conservative family values. He told me that the bishop was devastated that the two amendments on religious freedom and funded abortion all failed. One of the problems in Florida was the length of the ballot - 13 constitutional amendments. I believe all failed. People could not understand them much less take the time to make a yes/no decision.

Clarice, at least Ron DeSantis won. He owes me one. I am going to ask him to fly our school's flag over the Capitol.

[Rick Ballard]

THG,

I lean towards selection of Mr. Electable from a Wall Street background far outweighing the Mormon aspect. McCain and Governor Romney were both preference trackers (selection of parents being their first correct choice) but Governor Romney slid into the oligarchy without a squeak while McCain never kissed enough Northeastern ass to make the club.

BOzo and the prog/commies beat the Wall Street drum from the moment he was sworn in. Mr. Electable's pursuit of the Goldilocks Optimum was not optimal enough to overcome the propaganda. The lack of clear differentiation resulted in a flat refusal to deal by 9 - 10 million Americans.

[Clarice]

That's good news. Allen West continues to battle on.

[Porchlight]

I'm just having a hard time understanding how McCain out performed Romney.

Palin.

[matt]

My daughter works at a well known company. Yesterday afternoon she was confronted by a co-worker; African American, clinching her bible, who told said daughter that if Romney won, the world was going to end.

This is the new normal, at least in California. God forbid you are conventional. The new conventional is an assortment of whacked out new agey, bizarro forms of conduct that would have been slapped down a generation ago.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--I lean towards selection of Mr. Electable from a Wall Street background far outweighing the Mormon aspect.--

This WaPo piece supports Rick's contention; "we turned a national election into a school board race".

[Dave (in MA)]

ChaCo's gone Full Ignatz on Twitter the past 12 hours or so.

[Dave (in MA)]

http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2012/11/07/hey-i-was-wrong/ Morris is eating crow toes today.

[C.R.]

The delusion of the parents of disabled thinking they will now get better healthcare is probably the most personally distressing part of this election to me as I am the mother of a 15 year old autistic son. He is not high-functioning and will have to be cared for all of his life, and, of course, after my husband and I are dead and no longer around to care for and protect him.

There was a very disturbing article at NRO in October regarding the direction of euthanasia and healthcare in Belgium which, I think, foretells, how things will go here (as does the Liverpool Pathway Care in England).

"Belgian Doctors Brag About Harvesting Organs From the Euthanized by Wesley J. Smith...it didn’t take the Belgians long after legalizing euthanasia for doctors to do just that, and now they brag about it at medical symposia. Most of the euthanized and harvested were not terminally ill, but disabled. One had a mental illness." LUN

[narciso]

And they got rid of David Rivera, who makes all my paisans look bad,

[cathyf]

Obama is also doomed to failure, though, in that our current course--which is his course--is unsustainable.

Right -- like FDR has been judged a failure because he made the Depression a dozen years longer than it should have been? As far as ending the Depression goes, the only thing that FDR did that succeeded was to die. And my mother-in-law (who hates Obama and voted for Romney early just in case she keeled over before election day her vote would still count) STILL believes that FDR saved the country during the Depression.

[Sandy Daze]

Have read all of the comments, must scoot out for an appointment, but in short distillation of what I am thinking right now:

We gotta break it in order to fix it. What does that mean? It means, let the sequestration go forward, massive layoffs, let every bad economic thing go forward that is proposed by the left/prog/administration. CRASH THE GOVT.

Only when we hit bottom can we begin to climb back out. Ask the AA. As long as we delay the inevitable, the more difficult and more painful the cure will be. So, break it now.
~
Second thought. The "remnant" America. I don't have it at my fingertips, but another and not necessarily mutually exclusive idea is to actually break the republic. The "remnant" America could be composed of the broad swath down the middle to the Gulf of Mexico. Narciso, which Russian was it (Igor Panarin?) that predicted America would self-destruct into about multiple new countries? Let the progs have their hell and we'll create our heaven, Will take about 20-30 years for many of the moves to occur, homes to be sold. Let them have at it.

[Rob Crawford]

Anyone else remember when the filibuster was a God-given right for the minority to stop unpopular laws?

[derwill]

C.R., what an awful thing. I cannot imagine the fear you must feel for your son's future after you are gone. My heart and my prayers go out to you.

[cathyf]

The delusion of the parents of disabled thinking they will now get better healthcare is probably the most personally distressing part of this election to me as I am the mother of a 15 year old autistic son. He is not high-functioning and will have to be cared for all of his life, and, of course, after my husband and I are dead and no longer around to care for and protect him.

It's not just health care. Suppose the parents and the grandparents and the great-grandparents have spent the years since a disabled child was born saving every penny which they have put in to trust funds for the child when they are gone. Hyperinflation means that every penny scraped together at such great sacrifice will be enough to super-size ONE xtra-value meal at the McDonalds -- IF somebody else pays for the meal itself.

[NK]

Post Mortem-- I think Mark Tapscott has it right. The anti-Bain stuff poisoned the well enough for soft ABO voters to not show up. The soft ABO voters didn't vote for JEF, they just didn't show-- negative attacks work if you can get your base out.

[boatbuilder]

They say they want less government intervention but they will always vote for the handouts. This is the trap we are in.

[hrtshpdbox]

About this:

OBAMA IS A MARXIST PUNK WHO HATES AMERICA, AND F**K YOU IF YOU VOTED FOR HIM, STUPID!

1. Too many words for a bumersticker?
2. If not, where do I get custom bumperstickers made?

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--ChaCo's gone Full Ignatz on Twitter the past 12 hours or so.

Posted by: Dave (in MA) | November 07, 2012 at 01:36 PM--

Not being a twitterer could you explain what that means, Dave?
I figure either he's being remarkably sagacious, statesmanlike and calm or he's posting hot chickies at light speed.
Both? At the same time?

[cathyf]

hrtshpdbox -- probably too long for a bumper sticker -- people won't be able to read it from a safe distance away when you are moving.

And besides it's not them being F**KED that I care about, but me.

[cathyf]

[about chaco]I figure either he's being remarkably sagacious, statesmanlike and calm or he's posting hot chickies at light speed. Both? At the same time?

Well chaco DOES do both on Facebook during normal times...

[hrtshpdbox]

probably too long for a bumper sticker
OK, thanks - maybe just a yard sign, then.

[narciso]

Yes, it was Panarin, Sandy, btw, Russia's got a new defense miniser, Shoigu, a siloviki in good standing,

[Melinda Romanoff]

Ig-

Chaco's providing your happy links.

In volume.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

So what incentives do the Democrats have for avoiding the "fiscal cliff"?
If they let it come, spending gets cut a tiny amount and taxes skyrocket and because they don't believe higher taxes to be harmful they believe they will get credit for a massive reduction in the deficit.

Remember, Barry thinks being on a "precipice" is a good thing.

[Rick Ballard]

"they just didn't show"

NK,

I'm going to be thinking about that as I spend the next few hours feeding dirty prog leaves through my chipper/mulcher. A flat refusal to deal is rather difficult to overcome. It generally requires more than cosmetic change.

[Elliott]

Big government is overdrawn.

[boatbuilder]

Clarice--It was Bubu who called you a moron, which makes you a genius in my book--that and the 300 point drop Today. Dudu is in a very good mood Today and was extremely gracious in his comment above.

[BumperStickerist]

From a professional's point of view:

Take This:

_____

OBAMA IS A MARXIST PUNK WHO HATES AMERICA, AND F**K YOU IF YOU VOTED FOR HIM, STUPID!

___________________

and change it to this:

_______________

OBAMA IS A MARXIST PUNK WHO HATES AMERICA, AND FUCK YOU IF YOU VOTED FOR HIM, STUPID!

________________

The Left isn't too bright. You have to spell things out for them.

If it doesn't fit on a bumpersticker, you need a bigger car.

[NK]

Ig-- they've already said they'll let the cliff fall happen. then they Senate will restore the spending cuts and the media will hammer the House repubs. the House shouldn't play that game-- instead they should do nothing except no debt limit increase, pass their budget and tax reform. -- and full bore oversight of the JEF incompetence.

[Extraneus]

I too am the parent of a low-functioning autistic, C.R. From what I've seen, there's so much gov't money sloshing around in that world that both of our kids will be fine even after we're gone.

I have a 15-yr-old son, too, and here's what I told him after he texted me his dismay at the election results:

Don't be sad or angry, just figure out how to play the game. Be more calculating than emotional. Some people get screwed in this game, and some prosper. It's a long game, and we don't make the rules.

Sorry to be so cynical, but I think the situation calls for it.

[matt]

Just yesterday there was an article in the Telegraph on a letter sent by over 1,000 doctors, nurses, and health care professionals defending the Liverpool Care Pathway. Welcome to Orwell's world. LUN

[derwill]

cathyf,

The difference is that the 1929 stock market crash occurred under Republican President Hoover. He was the man in the White House, and the Republicans were the party in power when the shit hit the fan and by 1932, when FDR was elected, the country was in a deep recession. Yes, ultimately, what FDR did turned a bad recession into a depression, but a desperate people got some immediate relief, and that gratitude carried over for a long while. Also it's hard to make a case that the road not taken would have been better when you're living through a terrible crisis.

He got reelected for the first time in 1936, but y 1937 the economy had relapsed back into a deep recession. His party got shellacked in the midterms, and a case can be made that he probably would have lost that third term. But by the time he was up for reelection again, in 1940, Europe was at war and the good guys were losing, so there you have it.

So if you want to use history as a guide, then if the economy crashes under Obama's watch he's going to get the blame, just like Hoover did, and the Democratic party will go down with him, especially when all that free stuff dries up. And it will.

Only the difference this time around will be that the generations alive in the 1930s were of hardier stock.

[Roosk]

"I'm just having a hard time understanding how McCain out performed Romney.

Palin."

If you are going to give her partial credit for getting 2MM votes for the GOP before, then you must also give her partial credit for driving an additional 9MM to the Dems.

[Porchlight]

Post Mortem-- I think Mark Tapscott has it right. The anti-Bain stuff poisoned the well enough for soft ABO voters to not show up. The soft ABO voters didn't vote for JEF, they just didn't show-- negative attacks work if you can get your base out.

I think that might be right. My husband was soft ABO and he fell for the caricature of Romney. He ended up voting for Johnson, but we're in TX so that's about equivalent to a soft ABO staying home in a swing state.

I know incumbents are hard to beat, esp. ones with lots of money and the media in their pocket. But how do they win in a bad economy? I keep coming back to the media.

[Dave (in MA)]

Ig, I didn't notice any statesmanlike stuff. I'm not saying it's not there, but I was just curious about what all the dozens of fb.me links he was posting, and clicked 2 or 3.

[Jane - Mock the media]

Hi guys,

For the first time in 5 years I've decided that practicing law is more important than politics - however the 3 drinks I had at lunch with Amy has stalled that goal.

My thoughts are this: Like Barbara, I don't think it is possible that we all got it that wrong. I think there had to have been some deep fraud, that we will never discover. I'm not suggesting we look for it, but I truly do not think the results are reflective of this country.

Then again, if they are, (or not) we need to either find a path out of this or leave.

I was buoyed by this reader comment at Insty:

On the blogs I read and comment on (not counting yours, really), I’ve seen far, far too many blog entries and comments lamenting our imminent collapse, our impending distruction, our slow (or rapid) descent into Hell, and so forth, all because we re-elected Mr. Obama. My humble request — can we hold off on the end-of-the-world stuff a while longer? We aren’t there yet. Not even close. The United States is a far more complicated and resilient organism than we give it credit for. Whatever’s ahead we’ll tackle, and it won’t matter much who’s president.

My biggest bitch is that I've wasted the last 5 years of my life.

[NK]

Media was a big part no doubt-- probably didn't get JEF many votes, but they suppressed ABO votes IMO.

[Ranger]

So what incentives do the Democrats have for avoiding the "fiscal cliff"?

Well, the WaPo ran a graphic a couple weeks ago the that indicated that if we go over the "fiscal cliff" unemployment would shoot up to about 11.4% by the end of 2013 or early 2014.

[narciso]

So clearly the "Idiocracy' strategy typified by the Simpsons, apparent;y worked. We are Venezuela now after 2002,

[Clarice]

Sory, dudu.

Take that, bubu!

[Clarice]

*sorry*

[narciso]

Between the Johnson and Goode vote, you had much of the margin, in the swing states.

[Porchlight]

If you are going to give her partial credit for getting 2MM votes for the GOP before, then you must also give her partial credit for driving an additional 9MM to the Dems.

Maybe so. But the story last time was that fiscal con/social libs were sooort of leaning to McCain, but decided Palin was a bridge too far. Thus we supposedly lost millions of votes to Obama.

Well this year we ran the type of reasonable, socially moderate candidate that those voters said they would consider, and we didn't have scary Palin on the ticket. And they voted for the fiscal liberal anyway, in a much worse economy.

So I think they were lying in 2008. Those people were Obama voters to begin with and still are. They were never fiscally conservative where it counted. Hell, my boss calls himself a fiscal conservative and he's voted Dem his whole life. It's a meaningless self-descriptor if you consider social issues to be more important.

[Sue]

A few months ago, I said Romney couldn't win but Obama could lose. Obama almost lost with his 1st debate performance and his handling of Benghazi. Time helped him overcome the debate performance and the media covered his handling of Benghazi.

The reason I didn't think Romney could win is the same reason John Kerry didn't win. Just because there were those who wanted Bush gone, the ABB voters were not enthused about Kerry. I posited you had to want to vote for someone not just against someone. Romney almost became someone to vote for and not just a vote against Obama.

I don't mean this to be a post against Romney. I think he is a great man, husband, father, grandfather, and I would have been proud to call him Mr. President. I just don't think he or any republican from the primary could have become someone to vote for.

[Threadkiller]

"OTOH, TK - consider that the only, I repeat only, tough questions Obama was asked were in Spanish. Curious?

Isn't running conservative Hispanics like running conservative blacks? Do you consider that different?"

I am not the least bit curious, Frau. The answer is simple and that is why it is mocked.

Dual allegiance strikes again.

The tough Spanish questions were predicated by the Fast and Furious attack on the Latino-American communities 1st loyalty. Notice where "American" always ends up when a hyphen is used; last place. The interviewers were NOT asking out of curiosity for the dead American-American Border Patrol agent.

If there is such a thing as a conservative Hispanic, the exit poll suggests that a non Hispanic conservative leader can only garner 27% of the total Hispanic vote, so what does the conservative Hispanic offer that could result in any different of an outcome?

Krauthammer must be counting on something different to bring the tide of Latinos to the conservative. It can only be one thing. Votes based on race. Keep the hyphen in place, America remains second if that is what it takes to win.

Dr K. is an ass-hole.

A century ago President Teddy Roosevelt put it this way. He said:

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language ... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldx8gZDwZWs

[cathyf]

The problem, matt, is that with modern technology something similar to the Liverpool Care Pathway is the gold standard of care for the right patients. If you read the stories about Pope John Paul II's last days, that's pretty much what they did with him. Something like 80% of all people die after some conscious, well-considered choice to forgo some possible treatment.

I believe that if you die in a Catholic hospital today, you stand a pretty good chance of being treated -- or not treated -- in a way that is morally and ethically right. In a secular hospital in the US you are probably more likely to get over treated -- given sometimes painful, sometimes quite expensive, treatments which everyone knows are futile.

Threading the needle between over treatment and euthanasia in end-of-life care requires, first of all, a strong moral and ethical sense. THAT is what Obamacare is designed to do -- to force everyone with a strong ethical and moral sense out of health care.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Well, the WaPo ran a graphic a couple weeks ago the that indicated that if we go over the "fiscal cliff" unemployment would shoot up to about 11.4% by the end of 2013 or early 2014.--

Barry just got reelected with 8% unemployment and in a party which thinks an 8% drop in median household income is no big thing and unemployment benefits are the greatest job engine and the more people on food stamps the better I'm not sure they aren't willing to inflict considerable pain on us in order to secure their sinecures and satisfy their ideology.

[Clarice]

I was going to suggest that perhaps we need a movie star to garner attention from the ill informed mass of voters and then I remembered Reagan was one.

[Dave (in MA)]

Jane, what do you think about getting gerrymandered into Olver country?

I still can't believe they overwhelmingly elected a kid who just moved out of Mommy's house a few months ago and has never done anything. Him, and a condescending, carpetbagging crone to boot.