Posted on 08/15/2012 12:02:43 PM PDT by smoothsailing
August 15, 2012
Jim Geraghty
The Wednesday edition of the Morning Jolt features the Obama campaign’s most indefensible, false, incendiary attack since their last one, a reason to doubt foreign policy columnists with unnamed sources, and then this thought about our political future…
What if 2012 Isn’t Obama’s Last Campaign?
Picture it: It’s December, and folks like you and I are celebrating the recent presidential campaign victory of Mitt Romney. It wasn’t a landslide; something on par with the Electoral College map of Bush vs. Kerry, and Romney winning the popular vote by two or three percentage points.
In that scenario, do you envision President Obama accepting defeat gracefully? Do you picture him congratulating President Romney on his victory, and pledging to do everything possible to ensure a smooth transition? Do you think the president will be ready to move on to post-White House life, focusing upon memoir-writing, building his presidential library, some charitable and foundation work, and plenty of golf?
Or do you think President Obama, and David Axelrod, and Valerie Jarrett and all of the true believers will find some reason to believe the result is illegitimate? Some combination of SuperPAC spending and voter ID laws that they believe nullifies the results? I don’t mean a constitutional crisis where Obama refuses to recognize the results, I mean just a narrative of “Romney cheated” that will reassure liberals that their views really are popular, and a return to the natural order of their eternal string of victories is one election-law change away. (In liberals’ view of the world, they never suffer a legitimate defeat.)
Seeing that rotund, irate Iowa woman storm the stage at the state fair to berate Paul Ryan, I can’t help but suspect we’ll see a lot of lefty rage in response to a Romney victory. Romney, Ryan, Speaker Boehner and Majority/Minority Leader McConnell will have a full plate, and they may see Wisconsin-style protests on a national scale. Occupy Wall Street may not be completely deflated; a “stolen election” makes a heck of a rallying cry.
If there’s anything we’ve seen, it’s that President Obama loves to campaign – to hold fundraisers, to attend rallies, to attend ‘town meetings’ where the questioners mostly ask why people aren’t smart enough to see how great he is. In January 2013, former President Obama would find himself with a lot of time to do all that.
I’m not the first to ponder this question, or to come to the same suspicions. Mickey Kaus saw a signal in Obama’s gay marriage shift:
Thinking two steps ahead? If Barack Obama loses the 2012 election, do you think he’s going to quit elective politics, serve on a series of corporate and foundation boards, write a best-selling children’s book on being a Dad and a Lugaresque memoir describing how Fox News and Peter Orszag betrayed him? I don’t. I think he’s going to run again, Grover Cleveland style. That casts possible additional (distant) light on today’s endorsement of same-sex marriage: It may or may not help Obama in 2012. But it would much more reliably likely help him in 2016, when public opinion can be expected to have shifted further in favor of this social innovation. It would certainly help him in the Democratic primaries. ….
Aaron Goldstein was even more explicit: “Let’s say Obama loses in November. He has a ready made excuse for his defeat. Obama can say that the forces of darkness (i.e. opponents of gay marriage) are to blame for his defeat while patting himself on the back for his “courage” in supporting same sex marriage. It also helps to position him for a comeback in 2016 or 2020. Make no mistake. If Obama loses this fall it won’t be the last we see of him. By that time with a greater presence of voters born after 1980 chances are there will be more voters in favor of gay marriage which would give Obama an opportunity to claim he was ahead of the curve.”
Back in July, James Pethokoukis came up with five reasons the president might try to come back again:
1. Obama, always trim and fit, would be only 55 on Election Day 2016.
2. Obama would likely still have a deep reservoir of support among key Democratic interest groups including (most importantly) African Americans, gays, young voters, and the educated elite.
3. Many Democrats might be inclined to give an historic president a second chance, reasoning he was dealt an impossibly bad economic hand by George W. Bush. “Bush got two terms, and Obama just one? Please.”
4. While there could potentially be some big name rivals in 2016, including Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo, none seem as formidable as Ronald Reagan was to Ford in 1980.
5. The economy the next four years could be pretty rough thanks to high levels of U.S. debt and a possible eurozone implosion. The Obama years might be subject to some positive revisionist history by a friendly media. And as one gloomy economic analyst told me recently,”Whichever party wins the White House in 2012 won’t win again for 20 years.”
There are a lot of people who are emotionally invested in the notion of Barack Obama as a transformative, redeeming, era-defining national leader.
In fact, thinking back to my Jolt of a few days ago, about how political leaders seek to have heroic narratives… perhaps Obama would be even more pleased with himself with “wilderness years.” In fact, if Obama really is a messiah-like figure in the minds of his biggest fans… doesn’t he need to return and demonstrate a political resurrection?
We really don’t need the current income tax replaced by another income tax.
“I don’t think I have ever seen so many conspiracy believers on a forum which purports to have a preponderance of reasonable intelligent thinking people as members. It’s discouraging and a bit unsettling. “
You are oh so right, and they are the same bunch who want to throw California under the bus! We wouldn’t have a country to save today if these were the kind of people on whom Washington had to rely in the War for Independence. And they don’t see that they are indeed a mirror image of those whom they profess to detest on the Left! But then again, we are still free enough that they can babble on about the Black helicopters and all that!
Well, it's just a matter of time before all the bong resin floating around his bloodstream does some damage. With any luck, it will incapacitate him from any future political aspirations, with the possibility of Kenyan Dog Catcher not being ruled out.
I do believe the Dems have an incredibly weak bench right now.
All their “stars” except Baraq are ancient. Hillary, Biden, Bwarney Fwank, Pelosi, Reid, Waxman, Schumer, etc.
The younger ones they do have are toxic like Debbie Washerwoman Schmultz, John Edwards, and Tony Weiner.
I know... it was just a dream.
One thing that is notable about the Obama administration is that he, himself, has done virtually nothing for his party. He raises funds...but only for himself.
He couldn't be bothered to campaign for the Democrats in Congress in 2010. In the few cases where he made an effort, they were ineffective.
If Obama loses in a squeaker in 2012 and wishes to run again in 2016, he will have to ingratiate himself with his party -- as Nixon did among Republicans in 1965-68. Criss-crossing the country, raising funds for the party and not himself, selflessly helping Congressional candidates and State committees, etc.
And Obama is simply too lazy and self-absorbed to do that.
He loses in 2012...and he's gone. Except in the media's wet dreams...and his own mind.
Have you wondered why the military is preparing for Civil Insurrection in 2016? It's not a coincidence. 0bama is planning on stealing this election, and in 2016 he has no intention of leaving office. He regards himself as dictator for life and he is getting the military ready to keep him in power.
When he leaves office he has his eye on that cushy gig Jesse Jackson has had for four decades.
If Obama loses in a close race, and the Dems hold the Senate, I think you’ll see him as the party’s nominee in 2016. If he loses big, and the Republicans increase their majority in the House and take the Senate, then things will get interesting for the Dems in 2016. Obama’s enormous ego will cause him to seek the nomination, but the party will blame him for the 2012 disaster and seek another candidate. Hillary and Biden will be too old. (Hillary looks horrible now - just imagine what she’ll look like in 4 years!) As someone else pointed out, the Democrats have a weak bench. They’ll have to manufacture a new “rising star” in the party.
Aside from his chronic case of dumbass fever, of course.
Or even scarier- pull a Taft and convince the next Dem president to name him to SCOTUS
Obama has many years to be a divisive force in this country. His activism will make Carter and Clinton look like virtual hermits. He will be just as dangerous out of office. He will be the first community organizer former President. He will do his best to undermine whoever occupies the WH.
... if allowed to remain on the loose. There is more than enough in Obama's record to justify marching him immediately from the inaugural platform, where he will have sullenly watched Romney's swearing in, to the nearest federal holding pen, where he can await trial for the numerous criminalities of his flagitious regime. Romney should devote the full force of his Justice Department to pauperizing Obama with the cost of defending his indefensible regime and see to it that he spends all the rest of his adult life behind bars in federal prison.
If he ever is released, he should be released directly to Mexican authorities for prosecution for his complicity in the deaths of countless Mexican citizens at the hands of Obama-armed drug cartel members as a result of the Fast and Furious scam. Maybe he and Holder can be cell mates.
“My task—the Party’s task—was to organize defeat”
Yevgrav Zhivago
Nope. He will out-Gore Gore.
Perfect pic! I’m printing a copy and hanging it on the wall behind my desk for motivation over the next three months.
And who ARE these spineless, cowering pantywetters who even whip this ridicules crap UP in their cowardly lil own-shadow-scared midget-minds? I mean SERIOUSlY, how DO these perpetual nail-biting boo!--you-crapped-your-pants-again babies get through a single dark nightlight-less NIGHT?
HEY you sniveling little tinkle-trunks worry-wimps:
Get the HELL out from under that freaking baby crib, wipe that dripping wimper-nose snot, pull up your Pull-ups, and get that damn THUMB out of your mouth. Sheesh.
Boo! Obama's gonna get you!
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