To steal a theme that was used when Reagan was reelected president in 1984 (Morning in America), for the first time in six years it felt good to wake up Wednesday morning and say I'm an American. Unlike Michele who was never proud of her country until BHO was elected, I was never more ashamed of my country when he was voted in, with the possible exception of the second time he was voted in. It has nothing to do with racism as I think my life story will prove. You can go back and read my posts from the time BHO announced he was running, from the first time he said that we live in the greatest country in the world and he wanted our help to change it, and I basically predicted the disaster he would set upon us. Not that I'm a prophet. Any thinking, intelligent person could have seen it coming.
Unfortunately, about 40% of Americans were brainwashed by the promises of the false "messiah," who was going to be making their house and car payments for them, and the swing voters in the middle were driven left by the inept McCain campaign and inability of the Republicans to field a half decent candidate who could articulate their policies. It also didn't help that W. had become increasingly unpopular with an unending war that he couldn't figure out how to win, and budget deficits so high that the country had never seen anything like it. In a sense, the Republicans had more reason to blame Bush for the 2006 and 2008 election fiascos than Obama had to blame him for his (Obama's) poor economic recovery.
Even though the 2010 midterm elections "shellacked" the Democrats, weak Republican leadership in the House and a fractured Republican Party in the Senate did little to really hold up Obama's agenda. Then the 2012 campaign, in which Romney decided apparently to act like a gentleman and not challenge Obama on Benghazi, Fast and Furious, and other scandals that he could have nailed him with (after he ran a bitterly dirty campaign against Newt Gingrich for the Republican nomination), showed the unique ability once again of moderate/RINO Republicans to snatch defeat from the gaping jaws of victory.
When conservative talk show hosts like O'Reilly and Limbaugh, and Fox News analysts started predicting a big win for Republicans again in this midterm, my immediate thought was I hope they don't blow it again. Obamacare last year, and ISIS last spring should have been the complete undoing of Obama, but because of Republican lack of resolve (other than Ted Cruz and Mike Lee in the Senate, and Trey Gowdy in the House) he essentially got off the hook. But the people it seems were beginning to wake up. Obama's approval rating dropped in the polls down to around 41%. It looked like another Democrat shellacking was in the making, but then Obama's approval ratings went back up to around 45% or higher. I was more than a little concerned.
But as ISIS grew from J.V. to Varsity, James Foley was beheaded by terrorists and BHO played golf, Marine Sgt. Tamoressi sat in a Mexican jail while BHO did nothing after making such a big deal of trading five terrorist leaders so as not to leave traitor Bowe Bergdahl behind, and then did nothing while he assured us ebola would never reach our shores and it did, his poll numbers dropped again to 40% or below. A Republican victory in this election looked like a sure thing, but then the poll numbers started showing very close races all across the country within one or two points, and the liberal media started predicting better times ahead for Democrats.
When Republicans started projecting at least six Senate victories, I started to get a little nervous. Could we throw it away again at the last minute? Then liberal pundits started talking about how the Senate campaigns weren't that important because BHO could still veto any bill a Republican controlled Congress could send him, and besides, the governorships were more important, and they were predicting big Democrat victories. Early on election day when Democrat Tom Wolf was quickly projected to win the governor's seat in Pennsylvania from the Republican incumbent, and Scott Brown couldn't seem to catch Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, and other races were reported as being dead heats, I started to wonder if Republicans weren't being a little too optimistic.
Then within the first hour or two a pattern started to emerge. Ed Gillespie came out of nowhere to lead Mark Warner in Virginia, and even though he eventually lost by only one percent of the vote, it was a race nobody had even considered would be close, and an indication that people, even in Democratic strongholds, were beginning to show their dissatisfaction with the Obama administration. Apparently Democrat candidates had seen it coming. They didn't want BHO campaigning for them. But BHO wasn't about to be left out. Since they didn't want him, he made it clear that even though he wasn't running, the campaigns were all about his policies. Thank you BHO. Your snooty-nosed pride, which wouldn't let you become irrelevant, was the best campaign ad the Republicans could have asked for. It made it clear what was at issue in the election, and the country absolutely repudiated everything you stand for.
Other than the Tom Tillis - Kay Hagan race in North Carolina, most of the races weren't even close. In the end the Republicans picked up seven Senate seats, and will likely get two more, and fourteen House seats and will likely get two more, as well as a net gain of three governorships including those in uber-liberal states Maryland, Massachusetts, and Obama's home state of Illinois. In Wisconsin, a state where liberal unions had spent tens of millions campaigning against Republican Scott Walker, and which was reported as being a statistical tie when the polls opened, Walker trounced his Democrat opponent sparking speculation that he might even be a presidential candidate in 2016.
A resounding Republican victory, and although all Republicans are not strong conservatives, the mood of the country is so much against BHO's agenda on the border, immigration, ISIS and Obamacare, that even John Boehner is now sounding like a Tea Party representative. So what's going to happen?
Did you see BHO's press conference? He's defiant. He heard us, he said, and he also heard the two-thirds of voters who didn't vote, as if they were all his supporters. No doubt they aren't, but he'll claim that as his mandate to do whatever he wants. He's going to do something about immigration before Christmas whether he has the support of Congress or not. He's ready to consider any proposals the Republicans have and sign them if he agrees with them. We've heard that how many times in the last six years? And he's never considered a single Republican proposal. In fact, Harry Reid has over 350 Republican passed bills in the House waiting to be voted on in the Senate, which he refuses to act on, and BHO refuses to prompt him on it.
It's going to be interesting to see what happens in the next two years. The false messiah has been exposed for the emperor with no clothes that he is. The best I think Congress will be able to do is keep BHO in check and prevent him from anymore illegal executive orders, such as what he is promising to do on immigration. I think that Boehner's comments and the letter from several Senators warning him not to do it, is a good sign. But we'll see. The Republicans have had a penchant for throwing away their advantages just when it looks like they are in position to get the country back on the right track.
Will they throw it away again, or will they in the next two years prepare the way for a presidential candidate who will reclaim America's prestige and position of power in the world? We need a return to constitutional limited government and the bill of rights, but more importantly, a hunger for a return to the God of our Forefathers. We'll see. In the meantime, it feels good to wake up in the morning and be able to hope that there is new promise for America's future.
