The Republicans Bet Everything, and Obama Won It All

Good article, but the title grabbed me.

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/11/republicans-bet-everything-and-obama-won-it-all.html

The Republicans Bet Everything, and Obama Won It All

By Jonathan Chait


President Barack Obama waves to the media from the south lawn of the White House as prepares to board Marine One in Washington, en route to campaign events in Nashua, N.H., Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

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The gamble was that by denying Obama any support, they would render his presidency wholly partisan at best, and a dysfunctional failure at worst. They would increase their own chances of denying him a second term, and that their return to power would allow them to claim a full and absolute break with the past. They shoved all their chips onto tonight’s election. When the networks called it at 11:15 p.m., the totality of the right’s failure was clear. And because they bid up the stakes as high as they could, their loss was unusually devastating.

snip//

The great gamble failed. It failed for many reasons: The economy recovered just enough in 2012, Mitt Romney ran a mediocre campaign, Obama ran a strong one. Among the most important is a factor conservatives seem to have never reckoned with — their party has never recovered the public’s trust:

The policy consequences of that failed gamble are immense: Universal health insurance will go into effect, and when the Bush tax cuts expire on January 1, 2013, Obama will be able to restore a plausible stream of tax revenue without needing the ascent of the unbowed Republican House.

The political repercussions may be just as enormous. While any number of future events could intervene — Obama could lose his second term to a scandal, or a foreign policy crisis — he looks very well poised to consolidate and expand the electoral revolution that helped sweep him into office. The economic recovery appears to be gaining momentum — perhaps not quite soon enough to allow him to have run a Morning in America reelection campaign, but advanced enough for him to preside over a second term that feels like true prosperity. If Obama presides over a strong and continuous recovery, his approval will rise and his policies will be vindicated. He could cement the partisan and ideological leanings of his rising coalition.

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http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/11/republicans-bet-everything-and-obama-won-it-all.html