The first African American President of these United States has once again made history tonight. Not just by becoming the first African American President to win reelection, but also by running once again an innovative and trailblazing campaign – one that will hopefully change Democratic playbooks for decades to come. Let me explain below the Fleur de Kos. But first, even though it may be too early to let our guard down, I think we’ve earned ourselves a random, I-sneer-at-your-pedestrian-demands-of-scientificness 2016 contenders poll. And no, for half of these people, I have no evidence whatsoever that they have ever considered running. And I’m leaving out a few folks who I assume/hope have made peace with not running, because tonight is about the future of course (Feinstein, Gore, Warner, ...).
The President won reelection for three reasons:
• The incumbent bonus. He lost it in the first debate, then gradually won it back during the subsequent debates and his response to super storm Sandy.
• The “fundamentals” – the data rational voters are supposed to base their decision on – were not great for him, but still favored him over his opponent. Or, as Vice President Biden put it: “Osama is dead, and GM is alive”.
• He did – and this is the frigging point of this diary – set himself apart from every Democratic nominee since LBJ by never letting a Romney lie get out there without striking back immediately, mercilessly, and with overwhelming force. By not shying away from savaging his opponent at every opening. School of Paul Wellstone. School of Howard Dean.
That last point is no small feat for a President who almost staked his legacy on the appearance of bipartisanship.