The real election, coming in December, maybe January

For once, Mitt Romney is right. Tuesday's election is likely to resolve little, settle nothing, and merely postpone the greatest confrontation between the executive and legislative branches since Clinton's impeachment. Says Mitt:

You know that [when] the President is re-elected, he will still be unable to work with the people in Congress ... The debt ceiling will come up again, and shutdown and default will be threatened, chilling the economy.

I have bracketed reality as a substitution for Romney's conditional "if," and the only other way to make my introduction work--"Romney is right"--is to insert an ellipsis in place of Romney's characteristic wrongheadedness: "He has ignored them, attacked them, blamed [the people in Congress]." With those revisions, we can then say that Mitt Romney has accurately seen the past, present and future.

We've a bloodbath long in the making.

It's true that attacks and blame have indeed prospered and multiplied, but any fair reading of the president's relations with congressional Republicans reveals a decided one-sidedness that is simply yet staggeringly irreconcilable with Romney's recent history. There's no need to rehash here the GOP's systematic hostility to Obama from Day One; it suffices to note that whatever progress the president and his congressional allies have made is extraordinary in the face of that systematic hostility. And there's little to no reason to think the latter will cease on Wednesday morning.

At which point the debt ceiling, a government shutdown and a catastrophic default will again threaten, "chilling the economy," just as Romney predicts. This time, however, Obama's absolutism on fiscal matters will need to match the intensity of the GOP's--both sides have already drawn their sandy lines--and the outcome of only that showdown will decide the winner of Tuesday's election. 

Comments

[Robinswing]

I am going to make a prediction...when Michelle and Joe (Walsh) and Allen and other teabaggers lose their seats on Tuesday, Bonehead will be better able to rein in his group. In the change and hope department perhaps Ryan can be a two-time loser on Tuesday.

[Peter G]

I too will make a prediction. The amercan economy is much stronger now and strengthening monthly. It is not nearly as susceptible to Republican blackmail. In many ways the artificial fiscal cliff that was created by sequestration favors the administration. Not only will taxes rise as the Bush tax cuts expire, something that needs to happen eventually anyway, but the cuts in military spending will affect a very large number of congressional districts. It is no accident that such spending is diffuse geographically. Now the tea party crowd may not give a rat's asshole about these things but your more professional politicians will definitely give a damn. This is one of the reasons I think that people who blather about term limits are full of it. In many respects term limits encourage short term thinking rather than long term thinking. Conflating personal political success with the needs of the constituents is not a bad thing overall. I expect survival will drive at least some Republicans to behave properly if not with good grace. I doubt they'll go full Christie but they'll move.

[samcdc]

"I love the smell of extortion in the morning," spoke Mr. Mitt.

Desperation time, it is. When the polls stopped playing the "Mitt's got a good chance game", he changed his pitch to threatening the nation with retribution should he be (i.e. when he is) denied his birthright ascendency to the highest office in the land. "If you don't elect me, the R's in the House will refuse to raise the debt limit. That'll teach ya."

Most people, one would think, would be really, really pissed off about having a gun held to their head and having their livelihood threatened by some low life thug. I'm not really hopeful that people will understand the threat, though.

Oh, one other thing: Mitt will, I think, convince himself that this loss is an anomaly caused by a glitch of some kind ("IT'S ALL CHRISTIE'S FAULT!!!"), believe that he would have won had it not been for x or y or z and come back for another trip down Futility Lane. Ann just wouldn't have it otherwise.

[Stephen H. Savage]

At that point, perhaps the best thing Obama could do would be to call Boehner and McConnell in to the Oval Office, and give them a two word message: "DO IT!" And then refuse all calls from them until they cave.

[mdblanche]

I think Mitt knows he's losing and was always losing. He's been BS'ing about "Mitt-mentum" to keep the rubes in line until Wednesday, and then they'll believe it was a glitch or they wuz robbed. And if Mitt wants to try losing again, I'd be more than happy to let him.

[Robert Lipscomb]

The GOP looks like Russia heading into The Great War. What begins as a war will end as a revolution in the GOP. I hope it gets bloody.

[SueMe]

I cannot believe this thing is as close as the media is saying. There are several cable pundits working on their version of Tim Russert's performance in 2000 and they are hoping for a close finish. I voted early and plan to tune them out. Hope it's over when the polls close in Ohio and Obama wins hands down!