The Tsunami That Wasn’t

President Obama came out of the promised Tsunami in a whole lot better shape than most Democrats expected. Please do not confuse this for being GOOD for the President, but it is mostly wounded pride. He kept the Senate, and most of the Democrats sent into retirement were not exactly Obama’s political allies.

A few of the President’s more vexing figures in the Democratic Party managed to stay put, but Obama’s net loss of votes in the House is closer to 20 than 60. It turns out that Republicans prefer Republicans as opposed to Republicans who caucus with Democrats. Who knew?

In other words, the “Solid South” of Dixiecrats and Demagogues has been thoroughly purged from the Democratic Party. Nixon’s Southern Strategy has come to full fruition.

In the short term, this is a pain in the behind for President Obama. He also has a battalion of right-wing political pundits proclaiming the end of his presidency. It may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Remember that whole “party of no” strategy that Republicans have been using for the last couple of years? Yeah, that’s not going to work so well now. Now they have to come up with something more than that.

Republicans actually have to send things to the Senate that will get to the floor. Gaining the House without getting the Senate gives Republicans two years to propose the Tea Party agenda, and get absolutely nothing passed. That gives President Obama a do-nothing Republican Congress to run against.

If anyone thinks Harry Reid is going to give in to Jim DeMint in the Senate, they should smoke some more of that particular stash.

President Obama is still fairly well liked, while there is no corresponding sentiment for congressional Republicans. A couple of people on the left have some buyer’s remorse and wish that Hillary Clinton were now the President. The people on the right who do not like President Obama didn’t like Hillary Clinton any better. They are unlikely to give Speaker-in-waiting Boehner too much latitude if and/or when he does not deliver.

Obama was the first president in a generation to win a majority of the popular vote. He did exactly what he had to do. The President used a big chunk of political capital to get as much of his agenda pushed through as he could when he was certain he had the majority in the House. This is something which put Republicans into full overreaction mode.

Republicans do not do overreaction well. If one goes back to the forties and the fifties, Richard Nixon versus Alger Hiss and Joe McCarthy versus Decency are key examples. Let us please not start on anything done by a member of the Bush Family.

We now approach two years of Don’t Tread On Me sound bite populism, from what is arguably the most unappealing political body ever. For the Tea Party’s claims of massive grass-roots support, there was no statewide candidate from the Tea Party to outperform expectations for any Republican.

In the cases of Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle, and Ken Buck, Senate seats which had been trending Republican went to the Democrat. Mike Castle is among Delaware’s best liked political figures. The Chicken Lady, Sue Lowden, was tracking WAY ahead of Harry Reid in Nevada. The less one says about Ken Buck, the better.

A case could be made for Pat Toomey, but 1 for 37 is NOT that much better than 0 for 37. Ask Barry Bonds about his postseason hitting record sometime.

The Republicans have a giant Tea Party Albatross around their necks. This overpriced publicity apparatus has produced NO unexpected results, generated no new support, and alienated pretty much every growing population in the country. If Republicans had washed their hands of the Tea Party and the Koch Brothers, they would now be in a better position for free.

Republican misfortune is such: they now own a quarter-billion Dollar machine, and the blamed thing does not work. Do not think that salesmen Karl Rove and Dick Armey have endeared themselves to the party poobahs. While the tea party has blue-collar appeal, they are not self-supporting. There is no death panel like that of Republicans who have dropped 250 million bucks on convincing poor people to do something and got nothing but what they were going to get anyway.

Some of the higher-profile Tea Party figures are already walking back the Tea Party identity. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio are already saying “Tea? Tea? No, I ordered a Diet Coke.” The Half-term Halfwit is still bringing her peculiar brand of polar populism, but the audience has seen the quiet exeunt of Republican power brokers.

The Grand Old Party sees the fastest return to power through failure in the near term. They cannot afford a 2014 election cycle with a viable Sarah Palin near the head of the party, so they will get rid of her in 2012. The only thing Democrats could have wanted besides a win this cycle has happened.

The Republicans seized a pyrrhic victory.