As Election Day approaches, it seems clear that President Obama is going to win the election. The Lichtman Keys have been in since 2010, with no change. Nate Silver currently forecasts Obama winning 307 electoral votes and gives him around an 86% chance of winning the election. The polling in Ohio pretty consistently favors Obama. Finally, the almost always wrong Dick Morris predicts a Romney landslide. It's hypothetically possible for Romney to win, but it would be a surprise result on par with "Dewey Defeats Truman." The President appears to have the election wrapped up.
This is good news. President Obama and activists across America have managed to show regular everyday Americans that Democrats can handle foreign policy (even if we liberals find some of the ways in which this has been done to be reprehensible, particularly regarding the kill list), that Democrats can prevent economic collapse, and that Democrats have a social vision which fits the reality of the future of this country, young Americans. We're a long ways from Bush. And now having shown we're not the weak, naive, and hedonistic bureaucratic bumblers the Bushes painted us as, we have an opening to defeat the Tea Party, Republican congressional leadership (the "young guns"), and their fellow travelers once and for all.
We need to learn from history, and actually from the founders of the first wave of the modern conservative movement. Our tasks are a bit different. William F. Buckley was tasked with making a fringe movement (the far-right of his time, mainstream conservatism today) become mainstream, and our job is...well, to kick them to the proverbial curb. But he changed the Overton Window and effected the zeitgeist with his worldview, and we need to do the same.
We need, ladies and gentlemen, a liberal Firing Line. We need a show on the left -- and maybe, in these times, it would be better suited for Youtube than TV -- which would be all about having a conversation with all the people who have followers with different opinions. Real Time probably comes closest to this right now, but we need something less on the fringes (even though, personally, I like Bill Maher's show) and more geared toward mainstream regular Americans. We need a fellow who is smart, well-read, knows the issues, and most importantly knows how to speak to the assumptions of the other side. Americans are tired of people on TV screaming about each other. This would provide us an opportunity to bring progressive discourse to centrist independent Americans.
7:52 PM PT: UPDATE: Some commenters point out that a woman could do such a show, and I retract my usage of the word "fellow." Reetz points out Soledad O'Brien as a potential host, and I agree that she is a better and more skeptical journalist than most who might well be able to fulfill this role.