Barack Obama’s Holiday Card List
If Obama wins reelection, he’s going to have a long list of holiday cards* to send out. Sure, he’ll have all sorts of fundraisers to thank. He’ll even give the normal lip service Democrats give to unions have their massive get out of the vote efforts, even though he won’t really do much for them over the next 4 years.
But Obama’s most elaborate holiday cards will have to go to the many Republicans assisting him in his reelection efforts by saying and doing things most designed to motivate the Democratic base. Of course, Mittens and his “I’m not concerned about the very poor” deserves a big thanks. If you’re not even going to make Democratic strategists work to create a narrative that paints you as a plutocrat, why are you even running?
There’s also the states. John Kasich deserves his own invitation to the Obama reelection party. His attack on public unions has made Ohioans so angry that, despite the bad economy and the cultural issues that have always made older, whiter states like Ohio difficult for Obama, a recent poll has him defeating Romney 49-42. Given Obama’s problems, that’s a big lead. Romney’s plutocrat image won’t play well in the Buckeye State. I’m far from saying Ohio is some kind of a sure thing for the Democrats, but this is a very good sign. And a good sign for Sherrod Brown’s Senate reelection campaign too.
In all seriousness, yes the economy still sucks and gas prices are high and there’s lots of reasons Obama could lose this, including the 40 billion dollars of Citizens United money that is going to paint Obama as Osama on every commercial break for 4 months. But the Republicans are really screwing themselves here. Given that the presidential election is fought state-by-state, I think we should all appreciate the Republicans destroying themselves in so many key battleground states. If Romney can’t win Ohio, I don’t see how he wins the election. Wisconsin Democrats are more motivated than any in the country. Minnesota Republicans are trying to get a right to work a person to death bill on the ballot; that’s sure to help Romney in a red-leaning but theoretically competitive state…. Indiana is really Republican and of all the states Obama won in 08, it seems the least likely to vote for him again. But Mitch Daniels’ own right to work a person to death law isn’t very popular with voters and won’t help Romney be able to ignore the Hoosier state.
And then you have Arizona. Jan Brewer, evidently concerned that Scott Walker and Nikki Haley were outcrazying her, has decided to declare a full-fledged war on public sector unions. She is shepherding a bill through the Arizona legislature that bans collective bargaining for public sector unions, barring cities and counties from paying workers who are using work time to do union business, and eliminating payroll dues deductions. Essentially, Arizona is moving to make public sector unionism illegal. Republicans estimate this will save taxpayers $550 million over seven years. That savings isn’t from paying lawyers to negotiate union contracts either–they are openly saying that they will slash the salaries of government workers.
Now I don’t know if Obama can win Arizona. I do know it is the #1 McCain-voting state that Obama is targeting. It is a very strange state. But its extremism and a motivated Latino populace might make this competitive, especially if Brewer continues to alienate new sectors of the state.
If Obama wins, we have so many Republicans to thank. I hope they continue helping the president will reelection.
* Yes, I am saying “holiday card” intentionally in the hopes of irritating a conservative.
Sometimes, with respect to a place like Arizona,I find myself thinking that climate change needs to hurry up.*
*No, I don’t really want this to happen.
Pet Peeve. Why admit you just said something you don’t mean? Either man up, or don’t bother posting in the first place.
Because it is a Joke Jackass.
/ I don’t really mean that.
// Or do I?
It was a joke. But I understand your point.
For all the talk of the electoral map changing, it’s still awfully hard to get to 270 in the red column without Ohio and Florida. It’s still early and all that, but it’s going to take quite a bit of bad economic news for those states to overcome their 2010 regrets this fall and go for Romney.
I think Florida is a must-win for the Republicans, assuming no massive collapse for Obama in the upper midwest. Give the Republicans Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and New Hampshire, and Obama still wins if he takes Florida (plus Kerry states not mentioned above). Ohio is somewhat less crucial, although they would still need to run the table, pretty much, on the above states: losing one big one or two smaller ones would give the election to Obama.
Playing around with an electoral college map makes me feel better about November.
The War on Kwanzaa continues. . .
Io Saturnalia!
The committee to reelect Barack Obama.
CREBO?
There’s an important tradition of the Republicans being CREEPs to re-elect the President. I like it better when it works this way.
When I moved to Ohio in 1979, it was a Blue state. Our governor was a Democrat and our senators were John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum. I keep hoping one day my adopted state will return to its senses.
I wouldn’t get too optimistic just yet.
There’s still our slowly improving, but basically jobless economy. (And yes, I know private-sector jobs are going up, while it’s public-sector ones that are creating the drag – but the net effect doesn’t look great – just better than anything under Little Boots).
Also too – let’s see what happens in Europe.
Also three – the oil companies will have their say in the election this summer.
If gas prices stay where they are, or go down, then it’s in Obama’s favor. If they edge over $4-5.00, Mittens will say that as a businessman and former CEO, he’ll know how to get the prices down.
If Dastardly Dickless and Heartless Cheney lives, he’ll probably use his rather significant influence amongst the oil companies, to sway the election in Mitt’s favor.
And at this point, driving a stake through his heart won’t work. And probably a silver bullet won’t either. Maybe the Energizer battery bunny in his mechanical “heart” will finally stop, taking this evil monster down to his richly deserved grave.
And I call first dibs on defecating on it!
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