Some Post-Election Thoughts

Barack Obama’s decisive win on Tuesday confirmed at least one thing – there is no global warming. How else to explain the recovery of a campaign that was in full melt down just three weeks prior? Had global warming been in full swing, the Obama campaign would have been nothing more than a puddle of warm consommé by election day. As it turned out, it was more like chilled gazpacho. Don’t worry, I don’t really get the analogy either.

Obama’s statement before the election that “voting is the best revenge” didn’t really make sense to me. It also appears the Obama voters didn’t understand the whole concept of revenge either. Revenge, by definition, is an act of retaliation – against someone else! Obama supporters apparently see it as an act of self-flagellation. Many walked into the voting booth and said, “I’m tired of the lousy economy, eight percent unemployment, five trillion more in debt, over-burdensome regulation and I’m going to take it out on somebody – me! I’m voting for Obama again. Ouch!”

Leading up to and including election day there was a spike in Google searches for “Who’s running for president?” If you didn’t know by Monday who the candidates were, I hope you sat this one out. Unfortunately, given the results, I suspect many went to the polling place with a copy of their Google search in hand. Some, I think, were still confused. A full six percent of unmarried women who voted for Obama believed they were casting a vote for the 1980s female band Bananarama. A simple mistake, but ultimately it was a wiser choice than Obama.

Interestingly, nearly seven percent of Washinton, D.C. residents voted for Mitt Romney. I wonder which two families those were?

The morning after the election I awoke feeling a bit like Red Klotz. He was the player/coach of the Washington Generals, the team that always lost to the Harlem Globetrotters. The Washington Generals used to play – and lose to – the Globetrotters 300 times a year. Although the Republican presidential losing streak is now only two, it seems like more. Klotz and the Generals were supposed to lose every game, yet sometimes, like Republicans occasionally do, I think they actually tried to win. It never happened, though. It would be best for future Republican candidates to put away the Red Klotz playbook.

Following the election, a Reuters analysis stated that Obama’s victory put him in a position to expand government’s reach. That isn’t terribly deep analysis as it pretty well states the obvious. That’s kind of like stating that playing in the NBA puts one in a position to make a lot of money. Winning the election puts Obama in a position to be president for the next four years too. Like I said, kind of obvious.

Now that Obama has won re-election, I think the Benghazi story will not go away. Eventually, the press will have to pay attention and they very well may learn that Benghazi is spelled with the letter “H.” They may also learn that Benghazi is a city in Libya, not the name of the actor who played Jackie Treehorn in the movie The Big Lebowski. Nevertheless, we will now get four more years of new scandals that the press will ignore. The fourth estate has become quite adept at not paying attention. No wonder no one pays much attention to the fourth estate.

Finally, I went to bed on election night believing that we had already heard all of the bad news for the week. Not so, apparently. The following day we learned that a life-size Justin Beiber doll is now on the market. I’m not even sure the real Justin Beiber is life-size. Oh, the humanity!

Curtice Mang is the author of the new book, The Constitution – I’m Not Kidding and Other Tales of Liberal Folly. He can be contacted at www.mangwrites.com, where one can also purchase his book; or contact Curtice at mangwrites at cox.net.