The Next Two Years

Mr. Obama allowed himself to appear repentant at his press conference or at least allowed The Media the opportunity to portray him as repentant. Clinton never really recovered from that perception in 1994 and neither will Mr. Obama. His image as Mr. Super Cool is now officially tarnished.

McConnell's speech at the Heritage Foundation and Boehner's press conference show that the Right smells blood in the water and will offer no compromise. To think of Harry Reid and whatever remains of the Left in Congress as some kind of firewall is a joke. The Republicans control BOTH houses - don't kid yourself otherwise. Obama can only veto so much until HE looks like an obstructionist. They have the chance to play offense and force Obama to appear reactionary for the next two years. Any cliffhanger elections from this year will fold all the way over in 2012 and even more will be in play. For The Right the plan was always to cut off the legs this election and the head the next.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan - since the July deadline is right around the corner Obama will have no choice but to back down on his promise to begin withdraw. Then, whatever remains of The Left that supports him will eat him alive. Since he already appears weak on domestic policy already; he cannot afford to appear weak on foreign policy too - or The Right will eat him alive. Quite a tightrope act, if you ask me. Whomever Obama hires to replace Gates will be the first real indicator of his own military policy, not Bush's. By July it might be hard to find anyone who doesn't suggest, nay, demand escalation.

And back at the state level - it's gerrymandering time again - and the new Republican Governors will go back to creating those funky electoral districts that are one street wide for two miles just so they can connect one trailer park to another. As of Tuesday, the District Map already looks red. Dick Morris (Clinton's old adviser turned Republican adviser) says that they could fix it so the Left couldn't even begin to try to take back the House until 2020. Or at the very least, those Republicans won't have to worry about campaigning so much.

So where does this leave Mr. Obama? In two years, the country will be just as divided and self-destructive, he may - like Johnson - realize he simply is not in the right place and time to unite and govern. More likely, when he mentions the idea of re-election to Michelle, she'll probably smack him in the head with the Official White House Rolling Pin. Obama's legacy may be a Post-Presidential analysis of the built-in flaws of Washington Politics tracing back to The Revolution. It won't do much for the people of this country, but in his hands, it would make a hell of a book. Just ask Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon about post-Presidential book sales.

But what about Mr. Obama's huge Progressive Base? Even if all those Twittering Lazy ObamaZombies who fell asleep this year woke up in 2012? The Right - and probably even the MSM will be tempted to blow them off as Trendy T-Shirt Wearing Twittering Lazy ObamaZombies, too. Why believe them? Why trust them? The fever of 2008 was propaganda-marketing whirlwind and you can't recreate that with a Facebook status change.

And adding Hillary over Biden will be an act of desperation that will be seen as a deliberate act of desperation that it will actually BE a desperate act. Besides, what does Hillary bring to the ticket at this point? Why would anyone get excited about her, Left or Right?