It was fun watching the clown show that was the GOP primary, no doubt; but now that the real election season is getting underway, it should be starting to become apparent to all but the most wildly deluded among us how this election is gonna shake out - we're gonna lose.
I don't want this to be the case - however disappointed I am with President Obama, I still know he'd be a better president for the next 4 years than Romney. But consider a few factors:
1. money - this matters, and they're crushing us, and we basically have no hope of ever catching up. And when I see stuff like Kos's diary about getting liberal billionaires to pony up gobs of cash to counter the Kochs and Adelsons, it's unbelievably depressing. These people don't exist - there are no billionaires wiling to spend the hundreds of millions needed to beat, or even match, the right wingers. Seeing someone as realistic as Kos typically is, saying this kind of thing is frankly depressing. This feels like decent into fantasy.
2. motivation - they have way more of it. They've spent 4 years ginning up anti-Obama lunacy. Obama tried to be noble and statesmanlike, tried to be bipartisan, and it got him nowhere. Over and over. That, plus the general willingness of the White House and Dems in congress to piss on progressives whenever the opportunity presented itself, has basically made it so that I just can't get the same excitement going that there was in 2008. I can't imagine I'm alone in this.
3. communication skills - the Democrats have sucked at this basically since the dawn of time, but they really seem to have learned nothing at all from the past 12 years. The frothing insanity about death panels and so on that came up during the "debate" over the healthcare bill shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone at The White House; I know I saw it coming. And yet, the Dems totally lost the discussion by barely showing up. Someone needed to come right out and say, on national TV "that right there is some of the most insane bullshit I've ever heard in my life, and you're a disgrace to this country to spread that kind of crap around." Instead, mealy mouthed blather.
We've got nothing in our favor here. Maybe we'll get lucky and Romney will manage to screw up so badly that Obama can squeak out a winner. But I'm not holding my breath. Maybe this is a just despondent ramble, but I have a nagging feeling that we're gonna be here November 3rd, gnashing out teeth and wondering what happened. I hope I'm wrong.