More Freakin' Politics

• People are making way to much of this election. The only lesson here is that Obama is still the Democratic MVP.
• The Republican victory is going to make things easier for Obama. He'll be able to respond to arguments, where he's better. Instead of trying to push through his own agenda, he'll be able to point out that the Republicans have no actual ideas other than to claim they don't like Obama's. Obama always looks better in comparison, and there's finally an orange man to compare him to. Obama is going to become much more popular over the next year. This election all but confirms an Obama victory in 2012.
• Sarah Palin keeps me up at night. Who out there really supports a candidate who has commercials for her reality show during Sister Wives? Nilda, why are you making me watch Sister Wives?? Don't you tell me you don't watch Sister Wives, it was on for an hour after I got home!
• The real lesson from this election is that bi-partisanship is impossible. Obama's crucial sin was compromising. It killed him with the left, who saw that Obama was not the progressive they thought, and it didn't stop the conservatives from labeling him as a liberal, which was always inevitable.
• But he really had no choice but to at least try to forge a coalition for health care reform and financial regulation. His mandate was to change Washington and create a new tone.
• Another lesson is the power of the media. The administration kept its head out of the cable news cycle and focused on legislation, but didn't realize that the rest of the country only saw the debate. As soon as there were talks of death panels, the content of the health care legislation was lost.
• Maureen Dowd had a pretty good column comparing this Republican victory to the 1994 victory.
• For some reason, I miss Bush. Is it bad that I want to read his crappy memoir? It seems like an easier read than Harry Potter, with less big words.
• Everything I write is true and you have to believe it. It's The Rules.