Mad_Machine76
Mad_Machine76's JournalI believe that they are still running that "fever"
Despite some initial promising gestures about not making efforts to repeal ACA, he quickly walked back those statements and Cantor is demanding that ACA, as well as Medicare and Medicaid be put "on the table" for ongoing fiscal negotiations. Who the hell won the election and why did he win? Because the American people are eager to take away ACA and cut Medicare, Medicaid (and Social Security)?
What a BS meme
Romney's pundit-/poll-driven "momentum" was already petering out by the time that the storm hit and it changed absolutely nothing IMHO. WHAT did it change exactly? 332 electoral votes is not exactly a "squeaker". 
The truth of the matter is that President Obama was well-positioned THE ENTIRE RACE to win an EV majority. The only polls that the right focused on were the national PV polls that showed the race tied or Romney slightly ahead- while the individual state polls showed a consistent advantage for President Obama. Hurricane Sandy didn't noticeably change anything. Romney wasn't on track to win in the first place!
I think things will change
Although the GOP's obstructionism in Congress was awful and unprecedented in modern history, they at least had a fig leaf of a "legitimate" argument to make that President Obama's agenda was "too extreme" and that they were just the "loyal opposition" standing up against it. This claim, however specious, was bolstered by the 2010 midterms, which were largely viewed as a repudiation or at least a challenge to President Obama's policies. Now that President Obama has stood for re-election and been challenged directly and still won handily, his victory should be seen as a confirmation that the American people want his general vision for the country over the general "Republican" vision that Mitt Romney's candidacy advanced. Sure, Boehner, McConnell, et. al can sit around and play obstructionist games and try to hobble President Obama for the next 2-4 years but I believe that if they do, they and the Republican Party will be increasingly marginalized and challenged and President Obama will have much more leverage and support than he previously did to call out their obstructionism and demand cooperation. It will be up to the Republicans to decide which path they choose to tread (and I don't really trust them to make the wiser choice) but it seems pretty clear that a lot of people want to see things getting done in DC and most people obviously didn't feel that replacing President Obama with Mitt Romney was the correct solution for this. It would have been better if the public had given President Obama an all-Democratic Congress to work with (again) but, unfortunately, it didn't happen, so we're left with pretty much the status quo from two years ago to work (though, perhaps with a few less tea nuts) with and I don't think that more obstructionism is what most people have in mind for the country for the next 2-4 years.
I hear the MSM now talking incessantly about what President Obama needs to do
in regards to working with the Republicans in Congress to solve things during the next 4 years but are any of them talking about what REPUBLICANS need to do in regards to working with President Obama now that their "one-term President" strategy has blown up in their faces?
Folks, one important thing to keep in mind this evening while viewing returns:
President Obama has MULTIPLE paths available to get him to 270 EV (though I personally believe he will handily exceed this threshold).
It shouldn't be
but there are a lot of people wanting to get rid of President Obama and they would vote for Satan himself (or in this case, Mitt Romney) to do it. They are not voting FOR him so much as AGAINST President Obama.
Possible but not probable IMHO
He's either going to have a REALLY good night tomorrow night- which is not currently indicated by the polling/early voting results- or there would have to be a pretty sophisticated vote manipulation operation in place though the probability of them being able to successfully pull it off seems fairly low. The polls are tight in some of the swing states but President Obama doesn't need all of them to win and in most of them he's ahead by a small but IMHO comfortable enough margin of victory that would probably be able to overcome any vote manipulation. Electoral reform IMHO needs to be put at the top of issues that need to be addressed during the next four years. We all need to be able to trust our electoral system and right now there is not a lot of trust, integrity, let alone consistency in our electoral system. I really think that we need some kind of federal guidelines for national elections and/or mechanisms at the state level to prevent all of the shenanigans we've seen during the past few elections.
the things that have irritated me (re: MSM) the most about this election is:
1.) The MSM has treated Mitt Romney as a viable (or, shall we say, "legitimate"
candidate for POTUS as opposed to somebody we STILL have no idea what his actual position (closest to how he would presumably govern anyway) on virtually any major issue because he's been on all sides of the issue at one time or another and done an amazing job lying and/or obfuscating his position depending on what's been going on at any given moment during the campaign. How anybody feels that somebody who won't reveal themselves on the major issues of the day should even be trusted for five seconds to lead this country and the free world is beyond me. The MSM treated Mitt Romney like a freaking king after his first debate with President Obama even though he showed up and lied and steamrolled both the moderator and President Obama!
2.) The MSM and TPTB have completely muddied the waters when it comes to the polling towards the end, both by making things seem "close" or "tied" by cherry-picking one or two polls- usually ones of mysterious or unreliable origin- that have made the race seem so despite lots of steady, reliable polling that suggests it's not quite that close or "even", as well as preferring to focus on national polling and trumpeting those numbers to the exclusion of state polling, where the election will actually be decided.
3.) The MSM is now pushing the "legitimacy" issue, which is to say, how President Obama should be treated if he wins the EV but not the PV. The Republicans will no doubt push the issue if the election plays out this way even though the reverse happened in 2000 and we had to suck it up and live with it. They will just have to do the same. The only thing that a Romney PV win would tell me is that there are still too many ignorant and/or bigoted people in this country and that, presumably, most of them would be concentrated in states that President Obama- and probably any Democrat for that matter- wouldn't win anyway.
Feel free to comment and/or add to the list.
“I promise change, but I have a record of achieving it.”
So does Obama, dumb***!!!! 
And unlike Romney's "record", President Obama's record is REAL!
Let's not get carried away
just because he's more concerned about the well being of the citizens of this state than partisan politics AT THE MOMENT.
Profile Information
Name: Mara Alis ButlerGender: Female
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
Home country: USA
Current location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Member since: Sat Feb 28, 2004, 01:13 AM
Number of posts: 24,406
