What? You've never been wrong? This writer has been wrong many times before and is hardly fazed by it. For example, no matter how good or bad they might be, hardly a season passes that I don't predict that the Ravens will win the Super Bowl, or that the Orioles will finish last in the American League East. However, when the Orioles, to the delight of every Orioles' fan, turned the baseball world on its ear this season past by winning 93 games and giving the New York Yankees all that they could handle in the divisional round of the playoffs, it should have been obvious that something was in the water.
The reelection of Barack Obama has left supporters of Mitt Romney at a loss to understand what in the world went wrong. All of the momentum and enthusiasm were in Mr. Romney's favor. All of his ducks were in a row. It seemed that Mr. Romney's election was but a formality. And then the bubble burst. All that was missing was the "Romney Defeats Obama" newspaper headline photo.
What is most galling since Election Night is that liberal/socialist/Democratic (LSD) commentator/analysts from Kirsten Powers to Juan Williams have suggested that, if the Republicans want to win elections from here on out, they will have to change. Their ideas, their presentation, their platform, must become, at least according to these "journalists," more "in tune" with the American people. In short, they suggest that they become more like the LSDs that have taken over the Democratic Party.
It's nice to know that they care, but they must be joking. The LSDs are the same people who took any reference to God out of their platform at the LSDNC (National Convention). They booed when His name was unpopularly re-inserted. They purposely divide voters along, class, racial and sexual lines, as if they are soldiers in opposing armies. They paint anyone who disagrees with them, not just Conservative Republicans, as enemies rather than fellow Americans working together toward a better tomorrow. No, the best option for the GOP is to stick by its principles. Anything else will insure much less stunning and far more complete defeats in future elections.
It isn't Conservative ideas, but the way that Republicans try to communicate them that has to change. Facts are stubborn things which can't be altered, only distorted or ignored. Conservative Republicans have the facts in their favor if they will only state them clearly, in an organized, this-is-what-we-stand-for manner. Be confident about the message and unworried that someone will be offended by it because someone surely will. When it happens, suggest that he grow a thicker skin. Make it known that Conservative Republican principles are what they are, and they aren't going away. Period.
That's how the LSDs present their distortions, and this time, it worked. They are unified in their approach and don't tolerate mavericks like John McCain or loose cannons like Todd Akin. LSDs always toe the party line. It's their greatest strength.
Poll after poll suggests that Americans are put off by negative political ads, but that doesn't seem to be entirely accurate. If nothing else, Mr. Obama's reelection proves that character assassination works. Mr. Romney was depicted as a murderer, as a greedy Capitalist who prospered on the misfortune of others, and as a monster who would push a wheelchair-bound grandmother over a cliff.
The bogus images must have had some effect because they kept coming. Even now that the President has won reelection, the LSDs are surely planning how to smear their opponent next time. That's what they do. Republicans must get it through their heads that politics is a full contact sport, 24-7-365. They have to train for the fight. If the LSDs insist on taking up ideological positions in the gutter, and they will, then Conservative Republicans will have to steel themselves to the concept that that's from where they'll have to be rooted out. That isn't "sinking to their level." It's what has to be done.
Furthermore, Conservative Republican leaders must adopt the idea that allowing a Botox Nancy Pelosi, a chronically constipated Harry Reid, or anyone on the left to label them as "racists" or "Nazis," is to allow their constituents to be equally insulted. They musn't let it pass unchallenged because it's aimed at all of us, half the country, not just the leadership. It can't be ignored because an insult like that sticks.
Mr. Romney did a lot of things right, He focused on the economy from Day 1. Saddled with 43 straight months with 8% unemployment, and 11% if those who have stopped looking for work are counted, the administration was faced with 23 million unemployed people. 1 person in 6 living at, or below the poverty level. 47 million on food stamps. Gas prices twice what they were when Mr. Obama took office, upping the price of everything that is shipped by plane, train, ship, or truck. His agenda was killing jobs even before Obamacare became the law, and it will continue to kill jobs.
The President has waged economic war on the oil, coal, and nuclear industries and fiddled as Solyndra and other "green energy" companies went belly-up despite billions in "stimulus" funding. He claims to have "saved" the auto industry with "stimulus" funds, but in fact has only staved off the inevitable by forcing the auto companies to build electric cars that almost nobody wants to buy. "Inevitable" because sooner or later, the money runs out. When a company spends money to produce a product that nobody wants to buy, like the Chevy Volt, it gets too little return on its investment. Jobs are lost and in the end, bankruptcy is the result, "stimulus" funding or no.
In retrospect, the election may have turned in the moment at the end of the second Presidential Debate, when moderator Cindy Crowley inappropriately rose in defense of Mr. Obama just as Mr. Romney was about to slam him for his lack of action during the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya.
The President knew, even as the attack was happening, what was going on. Mr. Romney knew that he knew. Yet it took two full weeks for Mr. Obama to admit that terrorists were responsible for the attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. As Mr. Romney poised to strike, Ms. Crowley interposed her impression that the President had, "in fact," called the attack an act of terrorism when he had not. Her remark bought time for Mr. Obama to regain his composure. The President protested that he found "offensive" the suggestion that, as Commander-in-Chief, he had not done everything in his power to protect the lives of the endangered Americans.
Mr. Romney was clearly taken aback and let Crowley and the President off the hook. It may have been the biggest mistake of the entire campaign. Romney should have turned to the harpy and insisted that she stick to being the debate moderator, not an umpire. Then he should have told her to butt out of the debate, sit down and allow the President to address his challenge. When the President told him how "offended" he was, Mr. Romney might have shot back that he was offended by the deaths of four Americans who would not have died but for his weak-kneed inaction. He might have won election right then and there. Instead, he backed off.
The LSD mainstream media (LSDMSM) has always acted as a shield for Barack Obama, and he owes his reelection in no small way to them. The Libyan attack has been under-reported by the mainstream media, if not blatantly ignored. When the President flew off to Las Vegas to campaign after the death of the U.S. Ambassador and his fellow Americans, there was not a peep from the LSDMSM. Nor were they upset when, in the face of the damage and suffering left by Hurricane Sandy, the President flew in long enough to have his picture taken before heading back to Vegas for more campaigning. The President's "voting is the best revenge" comment was another non-story. Had George W. Bush been President, there would have been no end to the LSDMSM howling and gnashing of teeth.
That kind of bias in the LSDMSM is not about to change no matter how big and obvious the double-standard. Republicans have no option but to grow a spine and confront it head-on. As noted earlier, the facts are on their side.
Barack Obama's reelection is a bitter pill to swallow, but if the House Republican majority does the job it was elected to do, it won't signal the end of America as we know it. It may be that, with Mr. Obama's reelection, America has hit "rock-bottom."
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