Was it Inevitable?

[TheGlobalizer]

I think there's plenty Obama could have done along the way to stop the wave.  The main problem is that he has been stubbornly pursuing left-wing fantasies while ignoring the significant majorities that do not subscribe to those views, and denigrating the helpless other team.

To me, it showed both poor tactics as well as poor form.

If he actually stuck to a big part of his 2008 election schtick, which was to curtail some of the GOP's profligate spending (a very valid point), I don't think people would be nearly as outraged.

HCR was a misstep, but salvageable if he had given the GOP some of its pet arguments, like tort reform and some of the cross-border purchasing stuff.  That's supposed to happen in a representative democracy -- it's not a winner-take-all sport.  (Yes, I know the GOP under Bush did it -- and they got what they deserved in 2006/2008.)

Instead, Obama bulldozed ahead with a Dem-only approach to most significant pieces of legislation.  Once the budget was proposed, and the $1 trillion yearly deficits for 10 years were unveiled, the wave was a done deal.  Eyerolling at "dumb Americans" doesn't help, either -- stupid, panicky people vote, too (for better or worse).

The other initiatives (financial reform, cap-and-trade) were decent but at that point vulnerable to the rote "Dem steamroller" complaints from the GOP, regardless of the substance.

I also think that Obama showed himself to have little courage of his convictions -- you'd rarely see him come out, front and center, and take ownership of the more controversial elements of a law.  It makes him look like a dodgy sort of person, hard to vote for or even be excited to vote for if you love him / are on his "team".  His perplexing approach to DADT was among the bigger fails on left-leaning issues -- and one which looks especially stupid after the Pentagon study that recent came out.

Personally, Obama comes across as the guy who's trying to sell a solid left approach under the guise that it's a centrist perspective, and when it doesn't work, he throws the left wing under his tires to get traction.

The key message is that the right is enthusiastically saying "NObama" and the left is left wondering why he's saying "Yes we can, but..."  If you take away the underlying stuff, it makes it much harder for a wave to build, but those quotes stick under the circumstances, rallying the GOP and depressing Dem turnout.

A Clintonian-style Obama would have blunted some of those issues, and the Dems would probably be looking at only a 20-25 seat loss in the House and would easily hold onto the Senate.

But that's just my armchair quarterbacking.  :-)

[TheGlobalizer]

2008 wasn't a realignment, and 2010 isn't.

In 25 years, we may say that 2012 was one, but that depends on a confluence of events and outcomes.