I am a Obama optimist. Pending some foul trick or twist of fate I believe Obama will win. I don't want to speculate beyond that.
But, what of the aftermath? Notably, what about our Republican adversaries? I trust you all have read or are at least aware of the platform of the Republican national committee, you should download a copy of this to your machine for reference, because between now and 2014 it is going to be amusing as hell to watch the Pubbies try and "Luntz-ify" this hideous collection of frightening schemes. You can download this at http://www.scribd.com/...
Now why would we bother our heads about what Republican extremeism will look like two years down the road? Let's jump over the orange squiggle...
One reason is to see if the party moderates its extreme viewpoints as demgraphics show that their base is dying off, and that up and comers are not as likely to embrace the iron stiff rigidity of GOP dogma. Another reason is that the GOP embrace to big time protestant religion has not been especially successful. This election cycle has been a good example of why mouthy preachers are better seen and not heard outside of church. The preachers tend to not be politic in their choices of words, and this is costly to the candidates actually running.
The next reason for watching possible moderation occur in the GOP is what I call the "1992 Pat Buchanan factor." Pat gave the GOP Convention keynote speech in 1992, and frankly that speech was considered if not the nails that sealed the GOP coffin, then that speech was the hinges on the coffin lid. Pat literally scared the crap out of the nation with his bombast. Yet, astonishingly, 20 years later the GOP delivers a party platform that is such a "turd in the punchbowl" that the entire drift of the GOP attack against President Obama was blunted over and turned towards social issues. That is not what Romney wanted, and not what the GOP planners wanted. Those folks wanted an economic based campaign, the social tropes were for the downticket local races where less media attention was focused. Todd Akin may have turned attention to these extreme positions but he is incidental, what is consequential has been this odious, even malevolent GOP platform which embraces Akin-ism and Buerkle-ism at the expense of basic human rights.
So watching this party platform morph into something different is important for us, for it will be tested in the '14 elections just as surely as the sun will rise in the east. But watch for the "Luntz-ian" double talk, for Frankie will try and paint a human face upon this frightmask of a party platform, changing nothing but oh my what a glossy texture and finish it will have.
2014 is the test prelude to 2016. Keeping GOP extremeism in check is going have to be a top Democratic imperative, and we all better remember this. The extreme GOP fringe will not go away. It will not be shoo-ed out like a cat that just tipped over a lamp, it will not go quietly either there is too much money in all of this now. I see a political civil war within the GOP coming and the sooner it explodes the better. Not such an explosion that destroys the party utterly, but instead a purging that may break the party in two for awhile with conservative and moderate forces going in different directions. That side which captures the imagination with sound ideas and compassion will be the side that will eventually win out as the new GOP. We need a good two party system.
However, we do not need one party to be utterly progressive/liberal, and the other to be an utterly neo-fascist frightwig throwback. WE the nation and public need 2 parties vying with each other to see who can do the most good for America as a whole, and if that means having to go through a Tammany Committee/Locofoco Committee style cycle, then so be it. Because the present mix-up is just too poisonous....just read the Republican party platform, that should enlighten you.