The End of the Enchanting Obama

When politicians say, “these votes are very important and blah blah blah,” they are in fact telling the truth, because with them they are betting their children’s bread. The latest congressional and state elections were very important indeed, as congressional districts across America are due to be re-drawn to reflect population changes in political representation. Now the Republicans have the privilege of redesigning the electoral maps so as to ensure their political control for 10 years. “Re-design” means moving the boundaries of the district for the blatant purpose of excluding outright opponents and include supporters. That is why some houses are within a district and its neighbors are not. And so it happens that a number of politicians, whose artistic talents typically go unheralded, make great contributions to the art of allegory, albeit perhaps unwittingly.

In Massachusetts they “re-designed” a district that looked like a salamander; in Illinois another looks like a rabbit standing in its front legs riding a skateboard. The need to guarantee his job for 10 years is for the American congressman the mother of creativity.

And everything is absolutely legal. The Democratic defeat will be catastrophic for President Barack Obama. He spent his two years of governing reforming the health system—changes the Republicans promise to undermine by suspending funding.

Obama’s popularity plummeted while many Democratic candidates shied away because unpopularity is powerful and contagious.

Poor whites, 40 percent of voters, are angry with him; Hispanics, blacks, gays and lesbians too. The broad coalition that brought him to power is dissolving. In 1994, the Democrats lost, but two years later president Clinton won re-election.

For Obama, it will be very different because the partisan elite could promote another candidate for the next presidential elections.

This Democratic defeat may mean that we are witnessing the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning, of the enchanting Obama.