Krauthammer: "Don't Underestimate Barack Obama."

Lately, the media has been eating up the doom and gloom projections for Democrats in the November 2010 election, so much so that you kind of have to wonder to what degree it might be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ironically, however, conservative Charles Krauthammer predicts a not-so-gloomy future for Obama and the Democratic Party, regardless (and maybe even because of) what will likely happen in November.

The most interesting part of Krauthammer’s column in the Washington Post is the extent to which he portrays Pres. Barack Obama as a force to be reckoned with. Krauthammer clearly doesn’t agree with what Obama has spent his first year and a half in office doing, but he acknowledges the historic nature of Obama’s presidency and warns Republicans, in no uncertain terms, “Don’t underestimate Barack Obama.”

Krauthammer compares Obama’s presidency to Reagan’s, noting that “both presidencies were highly ideological, grandly ambitious and often underappreciated by their own side.” And while Obama has come under fire from critics on both sides of political spectrum, Krauthammer argues that these critics are actually missing the big picture.

Act One is over. The stimulus, Obamacare, financial reform have exhausted his first-term mandate. It will bear no more heavy lifting. And the Democrats will pay the price for ideological overreaching by losing one or both houses, whether de facto or de jure. The rest of the first term will be spent consolidating these gains (writing the regulations, for example) and preparing for Act Two.

For Obama to fulfill the remainder of his agenda, he’ll need to win a second term. And here’s the kicker. As Krauthammer sees it, letting the Republicans win control of either or both houses this November might actually benefit Obama (and Democrats) in the following 2012 election.

If Democrats lose control of one or both houses, Obama will probably have an easier time in 2012, just as Bill Clinton used Newt Gingrich and the Republicans as the foil for his 1996 reelection campaign.

Over the past few months, news and political analysis has been remarkably focused on the short term, concerned mostly with how this or that event will play out in the November elections. There has been comparatively less attention given to what could happen if the supposed inevitable Republican resurgence comes to pass, let alone what that could mean for future elections. Krauthammer’s foresight, then, is what makes this column particularly interesting.

It also, incidentally, makes Sarah Palin’s Twitter endorsement of Krauthammer’s column ever so slightly amusing. The shared Tea Party and Republican rallying cry that November is a “referendum on Obama” is, after all, a rather short sighted game plan.

You know...I took a day off work to be a poll watcher in 2008. I took an evening off to go through the training and listen to the SOS office explain all that we could and couldn’t do. I left that training wondering what good my presence would be as all the SOS(dem.)rules for poll watchers would stop me from reporting voter fraud or any other crimes. But, I didn’t change my intention to at least be standing there as an eye witness. Even if I couldn’t take pictures, even if I couldn’t use my cellphone to call the GOP attorney’s from inside the polling location to report fraud, a crime. I was ready, willing, and able to put on this poll watchers responsibility.

I never got anything from the GOP authorizing me, I never received credentials or even an assignment location.

A month later...I got this email. Personally, I think the whole matter should have been investigated. I believe the GOP itself is corrupt and in cahoots. Another FReeper told me to post this message in the body of a thread at the time, but remove the name. I did at that time follow that advice. But now, I don’t care so much and let the chips fall where they may.

Cuyahoga County, Ohio

11/16/2008 3:19:17 PM PST sent

I really, really want to post this to the boards! What happened in Ohio was a crime and this is how BAD WE WERE! We couldn’t have saved our butts if they had been on fire. OHH!

To: Volunteers for Poll Watching Cuyahoga County.

I’m writing to both explain and apologize for the problems and failures which occurred during the election.

I first arrived in Cleveland on October 20th, as a New York volunteer for the Republican Party. Including election day I spent 10 days working to recruit Poll Observers and during that time spoke to many of you, asking for help defending the polls from illegal voting. Many of you agreed and following that agreement never received either an assignment, credentials that had been promised, or both. Many of you waited anxiously on November 3rd for credentials and assignments.

The details of multiple communications failures are a long tail of miss-steps that included spam filters, lack of training, multiple qualifying procedures, overtaxed volunteers and lack of co-ordination with workers in Columbus headquarters. Only after the fact did I realize that there were only a few polling stations that we could place observers in that were not in the heart of Cleveland, the most challenging areas of town. Columbus was making an effort to further qualify people for these difficult assignments after I had already spoken to many of you. They then excluded many because they couldn’t contact you in time. If they didn’t recontact you then you were never assigned. Even if some of you were contacted concerning a location the time was so short and the staff in Columbus so taxed for the time available that some were left hanging with a location, no credentials, but plenty of anxiety.

This is the short answer to what went on and why I am writing to apologize for the failures prior to the election. Hopefully things will run more smoothly in the future.

Thanks to all of you who stepped forward to protect the integrity of the voting system. My best wishes go out to you all.

Sincerely,

John McIntosh

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