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Victory Lap

By · November 07,2012
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So that was pretty sweet. My guy – our guy – won, in decisive fashion. A Democrat has been elected to two terms in the White House. Barack Obama joins Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Clinton in the hall of electoral success. And I think history will record his achievements at the upper end of the spectrum as far as consequence – just based on what he’s done so far.

I have to indulge my already large ego here in pointing out I really got some things right. As far back as November of 2011 I predicted that President Obama would win by 2-3%. That appears to be the margin of victory right now. For once, again based on current results, I actually called Florida right.

As many liberals lost their minds after Obama’s poor performance in the first debate, I had a strange sort of serenity in simply trusting Obama to triumph. In his entire national career and my time as a supporter, the only time I’ve seriously doubted him was after he lost the New Hampshire primary to Hillary Clinton. Since then I realized that he and his braintrust really know what they’re doing. We saw that in 2008 and in almost epic form during this year’s election.

The single biggest thing I’ve learned about politics in America, encompassing the 2004 contest and up until last night’s triumph is this: Being “against” is simply not enough. It. Will. Not. Work. Progressive hatred of George W. Bush was not able to drag John Kerry across the finish line. Conservative hatred of Barack Obama equally failed to pull Mitt Romney into the oval office. Both parties need to learn, via the primary process, that simply picking a candidate based on your perception of what America wants is ultimate folly.

“Electability” is really a myth. A candidate does not gain electability until he has a legion of passionate supporters behind him or her. Electorally successful two-term presidents like George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and now Barack Obama prove this maxim. You have to be FOR someone for America to get the right signal to vote for them. Period.

On the left, we have accomplished something truly great. Our standard-bearer has been reaffirmed from coast to coast while the right has suffered enough of a defeat to – at least on the surface for now – start seriously questioning their place in the American political conversation. Obama’s winning coalition – a coalition that really looks like America in 2012 – strikes at the very heart and soul of foundational American conservatism.

America is moving forward, and past them.

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  • enlightened liberal

    In fact, the way it finished, Obama 2012 had more of a margin than Bush 2004. You might remember that he said he had a mandate and had political capital. Also, Bush 2004 won fewer electoral votes.

  • M2

    The popular vote is over three million, too. I guess President Obama will have to work harder to appease Republicans now with his big victory and all.

    • enlightened liberal

      It’s a clear mandate for Obamacare.

    • db

      Marco,

      The Right Wing Media Outlet (RWMO) Pundits are shaking their “Etch-a-Sketches” redefinging “mandate” from the 2000 definition. Apparently only Republicans get “mandates”.

      • M2

        Yeah, Chuck Krauthammer has completely moved the goal posts on his old mandate argument. Right wingers completely treat their audience as doofs. Probably because they’re doofs.

  • oi ly

    OMG, Nate Silver was indeed wrong – 332 to 206 instead of 313 to 225 Electoral Votes.

    Does this outcome make it a landslide victory for The Pres? Frankie? Dennis? Farris? Anybody?

  • oi ly
  • oi ly
    • M2

      Like a typical wingnut, she is unsure what’ wrong about her words and isn’t a racist for using the n-word.

      Another class act heard from. Speaking of, I imagine Dennis, Farris and Frank will be splitting another plate of Nachos and downing buds at Applebee’s all weekend long.

  • M2
  • M2

    That is hilarious.

  • oi ly

    Got this over on The Wonkette -

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLoqti0lzAw&feature=youtu.be

    This is crazy!

  • oi ly

    “Congrats to KarlRove on blowing $400 million this cycle. Every race CrossroadsGPS ran ads in, the Republicans lost. What a waste of money.”

    The Donald!

    • db

      oi,

      Exactly Wrong! The “Rove Stimulus” compounded by the money Sheldon Adelson blew on the primaries & general election as well; has provided a much needed economic boost to the country. Hundreds if not thousands are working now; who’d be out of work except for the money spent. Printers, Pollsters, Media Producers, Actors, Web Design & Maintenance Guys, Pundits of every stripe; all working thanks to the political season. These jobs can’t be outsourced to China. All that money stays right here in America.

      When you see that economic up-tick in a month or two, thank Karl Rove.

      • oi ly

        Good point.

  • oi ly
    • db

      oi,

      President Obama is very much a Centerist. He could easily fit in with Eisenhower, Romney (George), Javitz, Brooke & many others.

      It goes to show how far right the current Republicans are.

      Now, how about getting the IRS to revoke the charitiable status of those churches whose Ministers gave specific political direction from the pulpit?

  • oi ly

    “WASHINGTON — US House Speaker John Boehner suggested Thursday he was ready to drop Republican efforts to repeal landmark health care reform now that President Barack Obama has won re-election.

    Asked in an interview with ABC News whether he would seek to fully repeal the Obama-backed Affordable Care Act, as Republican Mitt Romney had vowed to do if he became president, Boehner said “the election changes that.”

    “Obamacare is the law of the land,” the speaker added.

    http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ieNI6ZP5ya67ddyA8u_CtaQbuIxQ?docId=CNG.fdf470bf858a75fdcabaedafe2981998.341

  • M2
  • oi ly

    I was a big Red Wings fan as a boy and I remember when the Maple Leafs beat my team 13-0. It was very hard going back to the play ground the next morning and just as humiliating to do so the entire following week.

    They’ll be back, nastier and as delusional as ever. Want to bet? LOL

    • Christopher Foxx

      No bet. You’ve described how they’ll return exactly.

    • enlightened liberal

      Yes, acting like THEY won the election. Sore losers, but at least they are consistent because they are sore winners as well.

    • db

      oi,

      My confession.

      I was driving home Tuesday night about 9:00 & I saw a billboard with the election results Romney 52% Obama 47%, only VT in the President’s column & both VA & FL leaning red. I got home & just went to bed, not needing to stay up to get more depressed. It was Weds. morning when I brought in the paper with President Obama’s smiling picture that I realized that we weren’t going to have to deal with President Romney.

      • M2

        Aw. You missed a wonderful night. I was at a sports bar with friends and it was the most riled up crowd I’ve ever witnessed there, screaming and yelling as more and more states went the D way. Awesome fun.

        • db

          Hey Marco,

          I admit I didn’t want to sit through a night which I saw turning redder & redder. Figured I get depressed enough over the four years of President Romney that I didn’t want to get started early. I’ve stayed up watching enough losing campaigns. Don’t need to do it again.

  • M2

    Frank’s was right. It was kinda like 1980 all over again.

    • enlightened liberal

      Speaking of Frank di Welcher, where is he? Where is Ferris? Did they all go on vacation? Did they kill themselves rather than live through another 4 years of 0Bama?

      • M2

        I’m just as curious. I wonder if they will ever return?

        • M2

          Or maybe they’ll return with new names but the same ole bullshit.

          • enlightened liberal

            Frankie has had several aliases over the years. Couple of times he’s tried to hide until Oliver or someone outed him.

          • oi ly

            They can change their names but not their smell.

      • db

        C’mon el,

        We’ve got to give Frank at least a week to come through on his bet. So we lay off him until say the 14th?

        I understand if our resident Trolls are still drinking themselves into oblivion & thus can’t come out to play with us.

        Marco,

        DA won’t let them get away with changing their “Nom de Blog”s. Besides each of them have a distinctive writing style that I think we’d catch.

        • M2

          True. You guys called out Phlunky as Dennis whilst I had no clue.

          You meddlesome kids and your van…

        • oi ly

          “I understand if our resident Trolls are still drinking themselves into oblivion & thus can’t come out to play with us.”

          Yes, and muttering to themselves – NObama, NObama, NObama”.

        • enlightened liberal

          I don’t think Frankie needs a lost election as an excuse to drink.
          Funny though that he disappeared. Not surprising though. I predict he’ll come back in a few weeks and when someone points out the bet he will call them every five-dollar word he can look up in the dictionary and then claim he gave at the office.

          And as far as Farris, he’ll be back. And I will spike the football in the end zone.

          • db

            el,

            The answer to Frank is obvious. Stiffing me is fine, but do you feel better for stiffing the Homeless Shelter & Cancer Research folks? Feel free to copy & paste. Each & every time Frank shows up here. Or anywhere else. I’m sure DA will be glad to add any such comments to his FrankDiSalleisstupid site. And if he bothers DA can probably tell us other sites where Frank hangs out so we can go there and remind him as well.

            My question is whether the Republicans will still try to crash the economy now that the goal of defeating President Obama has failed. John Boehner & debt negotiations certainly do start to resemble Peanut’s Lucy & the football. Eternally pulled away at the last minute.

  • M2

    It gets worse.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/11/08/romney-team-we-lost-florida/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

    Mitt Romney’s senior adviser in Florida has given up on the state.
    “The numbers in Florida show this was winnable,” Brett Doster said in a statement obtained by the Miami Herald. “We thought based on our polling and range of organization that we had done what we needed to win. Obviously, we didn’t, and for that I, and every other operative in Florida has a sick feeling that we left something on the table. I can assure you this won’t happen again.”

    • db

      Hey Marco,

      Nice catch. But I can assure you that every time there’s a losing side in an election; they ask themselves if there was anything they could have done differently. You beat yourself more the closer the vote. Romney people are going to be haunted for a long time as they blew every (or just about, depending on how you call NC. I thought it was Red from the first) “tossup” State. Just a % or two. If they had just…

      And this shows the advantage of the Electoral College. President Obama won with a 2.5% margin. Not much & we’ve already heard Fox “News” deny there’s a “mandate”. The EV total is better than 60%. The Electoral College magnifies small wins. President Obama routinely got less than 40% of the vote in the Red States. Romney was much more competitive even though he came up just short time & time again.

      • Christopher Foxx

        And this shows the advantage of the Electoral College

        On the contrary, it shows an unfortunate aspect (one of many). By representing a 2.5% margin as a 60% lead, how is it any different than all the right-wing pundits who insisted on ignoring the actual numbers and that Romney would win in a blowout?

        The fact, the reality is Obama won by a couple of percentage points.

        • db

          Chris,

          You want the impoundment of every voting machine in the country as Sheriff Joe tries to ferret out voter fraud? You want to risk your election on a hurricane not hitting your core area? The issue was heavily debated a dozen years ago. I’ll try to get around to finding those arguments for you.

          Guys,

          Chris objects to the magnification qualitied of the Elelctoral College. Frank was off a few years. It wasn’t 1980 all over again. It was 1960 all over again.

          • Christopher Foxx

            db,

            Huh?

            What does what I asked about the left distorting things like the right have to do with voter fraud? Not responding to what was actually said and instead making some nonsensical suggestion? How wingnut of you. Thanks for another example of my point.

  • db

    Oliver,

    I’m concerned by, “I had a strange sort of serenity in simply trusting Obama to triumph”. Now I hadn’t lost my mind after the first debate. Equally I hadn’t read the last page of the book to know that President Obama would lose only two of the States he carried in 2008. (My prediction a year ago 2-5) We can not trust that things will just work out. A lot of effort from a lot of people helped President Obama to win re-election.

    And next time won’t be so easy.

  • M2

    While doing a victory lap, I decided to look at the runners left behind and some of their best shots over the last few months.

    Enjoy.

    Justanotherrighty says:
    August 3, 2012 at 6:14 am
    E L. November 6 is when he finds out he’s out of a job, like the other thousands of people he ignored for four years.
So go f*ck yourself and the horse that rode in on you…

    SaveFarris says:
    July 16, 2012 at 9:48 am
    That’s a good boy, Oliver. Do exactly what the White House tells you and keep the focus on Romney. Don’t let ANYONE breathe a word about the current President and/or his record in office.
    Because if that word gets out, Obama loses. Badly.

    Justanotherrighty says:
    July 17, 2012 at 10:35 am

    NEWS FLASH: Romney is not “not losing” nor is he “poised to lose this election”. Pres Obama is losing significant portions of the demographics that put him in the White House.

    Plunket says:
    July 19, 2012 at 7:16 am
    New CBS/NYT poll backs up Jennifer Rubin’s article. A solid month of Obama ad blitzes attacking Romney with everything but the kitchen sink and any mention of the sputtering economy, we find that the public just isn’t buying it.
    Romney 47% to Obama 46%

    SaveFarris says:
    July 19, 2012 at 10:44 am

    Translation: Obama’s a Dead Man Walking. Stay the hell away from him if you want to still be in office come next January.

    Justanotherrighty says:
    August 10, 2012 at 9:24 am

    Then, finally, the American people have their eye on the Election. Romney has access to millions of dollars of RNC money, that Obama is already spending. Romney has three years of Obamanation to put under the microscope; what’s Obama got? “I got healthcare for a large amount of people, even though they didn’t want it”?
    Finally, there’s this simple equation : If it’s close by Halloween , Romney wins.
    It’s 1980 all over again!

    SaveFarris says:
    August 8, 2012 at 10:43 pm

    Wisconsin has voted 8 gazillion times in the past 18 months and every time, Republicans have come out ahead. (Barely, but still). Romney’s already within striking distance, then you go and add a favorite son? Bet against them at your own risk.

    Plunket says:
    September 20, 2012 at 8:11 am

    that will continue to be the issue
    That’s your hope, your manufactured faux rage over video of Romney telling donors that guys like you are unreachable and unbending in your beliefs in a redistrubutionist, dependent state will be the issue the media focuses on, instead of the failed policies of Obama that leave us here with high unemployment, high gas prices, the Middle East blowing up with our embassies under attack by terrorists, and a debt level so high that Obama doesn’t even know what it is. I think it’s great that you’re so proud of that, WIlbur.

    • enlightened liberal

      Thanks for posting this because the trolls aren’t here to talk about their erroneous predictions. Wonder why?

      • M2

        Wounds so deep, no amount of licking is gonna help.

        And those are just a random sampling of their forecasts. So many more in those back pages. Please find more.

        • db

          Thank you for re-posting those highlights.

          Frank & his Romney Landslide. I guess he listened to Dick Morris.

          What’s even more fun is watching Dennis dismiss the Romney “Hidden Cam” 47% statements while hammering us for not paying as much attenetion as he wanted us to pay to Benghazi, “You didn’t build that”, & “The Private Sector is fine”.

    • oi ly

      JAR –

      “If any one is involved in wishful thinking, it’s you lefties who have been so busy watching MSNBC and reading the New York Times, you have not been watching the candidates and their campaigns. It’s Obama / Biden that are running to states they thought were in the bag, and Romney / Ryan that are stealing states from the “front runners”.

      300 Electoral votes for Romney tomorrow, and popular votes to match.
      I have said it’s 1980 all over again; Tammy Bruce says it’s 1984 all over again !!”

      Come back to the 5 and dime, Jimmy Dean! Mull it over.

      • M2

        Will those chickens ever return to roost? I dunno.

        • Christopher Foxx

          Will those chickens ever return to roost?

          OF course they will.

          Unfortunately.

  • oi ly

    By the way, Rush just finished calling Latinos and Blacks lazy, as a way to explain why they voted for the Dems. Keep it up, Rush. You done good! Seems like the Republicans are stuck with him.

    • enlightened liberal

      Can’t understand why they don’t vote Republican.

  • M2

    As one of the liberals who lost their mind after the first debate, I take full credit for kicking the President’s re-election campaign back into gear.

    Okay, I kid. You’re right, Oliver. I had similar freakouts in 2008 and the Obama campaign was always a step ahead of my fears. This year was obviously no exception.

    Although it’s still early, it doesn’t seem many on the right got the mesage or know what to do about their loss. They’re blaming Christie, the hurricane, Mitt not being tough enough, the liberal media (of course) but few seem to actually accept they have a gaping design flaw in their alleged big tent.

    We heard the “He’s not American” attacks on Obama. “He’s not like us,” they said. But look at the coalition that brought the President back to the oval office – a broad mix of minorities and white Democrats who look around their America every single day and see that the President is just like us – like any American.

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