It's 2005...we won!...or did we? [View All]

[brokensymmetry]

I talk with lots of people, as do many here - and, frankly, * appears to be all but toast in 2004. Senator Kerry is already in a statistical dead heat with him, and the real campaign is not yet begun. The top 5%...even some top 1% types...are crossing over to the ABB camp. Those who still plan to vote for him lack enthusiasm for the choice...and people who used to send big checks to the pugs are now sending zip.

Let's suppose, for the moment, that there isn't a re-selection. The ABB voters swell in numbers. The ABB voters are motivated to vote - as are Democrats and Progressives of every stripe. But the * voters are demoralized and lack enthusiasm for their leader. I truly wonder if they'll even bother to vote.

It isn't surprising they feel this way...the deficit is growing rapidly, and that scares them. * is talking about a large increase in immigration, no change in the rush to globalization, and, recently, has agreed to more funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, and so forth - all of which are anathema to his core constituency.

Has Rove gone mad? I wonder. Is it possible that we're being set up? Suppose that they put on a semblance of a campaign so we all believe that it's real, but engineer things so our candidate, whoever it might be, wins. We're happy, right?

But then, after January 2005, our guy gets in. We probably won't control both houses of Congress - and maybe neither house. And the problems begin to hit - peak oil for one. And catastrophic environmental change for another. And the bills come due for all the spending * is doing right now. Perhaps our new President raises taxes - resulting in a lower stock market and howls of "tax and spend Democrat". Perhaps he cuts spending - and spending cuts are never popular. And there are things that probably can't be helped, such as peak oil and environmental changes.

In 2008, the pugs come in and offer to save us from all this...and the voters give them the whole ball of wax.

So, what do you think? Am I just being paranoid, or is our new President going to face some nearly impossible challenges?