If Obama Loses

If Obama Loses
By Aaron Goldstein on 11.8.11 @ 6:08AM

Preparing for the inevitable.

It is now less than a year before Americans will go to the polls and decide if they want to keep Barack Obama in the White House for another four years. Despite the absence of a primary challenger, with a national debt nearing $15 trillion, an unemployment rate consistently in the 9 percent range and at least three-quarters of Americans who believe the country is going in the wrong direction to show for his efforts to stimulate the economy, no incumbent President has been so vulnerable since Herbert Hoover.

If these conditions persist or get worse, there is a very good chance that the American electorate will give President Obama an eviction notice from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on November 6, 2012. In which case, he will not be allowed to stay in his home past noon on January 20, 2013. Should this come to pass we can expect President Obama's allies in the liberal media to assail the verdict and cast aspersions upon the American electorate.

To begin with, if President Obama should lose the presidency by the narrowest of margins, we can expect accusations of fraud and voter suppression. Liberal media outlets such as the New York Times, Newsweek, Daily Kos,and MSNBC will be quick to question the legitimacy of a Republican victory as they did when George W. Bush was elected in 2000 and re-elected in 2004. It is easier for the liberal media to believe that Republicans would plan and commit electoral fraud than to accept the idea that the American electorate would freely choose to vote for a Republican to highest office in the land.

Of course, such a narrative would be difficult to advance if Obama's loss is on the scale of Jimmy Carter in 1980. So if the liberal media cannot credibly accuse Republicans of chicanery, they will more than gladly accuse them and the people who voted for them of racism. Specifically, they will lay the blame at the feet of Tea Party activists who have long been accused of hating having a black man in the White House. Such accusations have no foundation in fact and are incredibly stupid when you consider the level of Tea Party support for Herman Cain. These accusations would look even more stupid if Republicans were to nominate Cain and if the American people subsequently elected him our 45th President.

But let's not underestimate the capacity of the liberal media when it comes to chutzpah.

If Obama were to lose to Cain, the liberal media would trot out the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Harry Belafonte, Jr. to reinforce the notion that Cain is not one of their own and is nothing more than a black man who makes white people comfortable with their prejudices. In other words, if Republicans nominate Cain they are doing so because they are racist and if Republicans don't nominate Cain it is also because of racism. Yet the notion that the American electorate is suddenly racist four years removed from electing Barack Obama is morally bankrupt. Not that it will impede the liberal media from trading in such insolvent ideas. Of course, it would never occur to the liberal media that the American people have repudiated Obama not because he is black but because he failed to keep us in the black.

With an electorate that is demanding a balanced budget, the repeal of Obamacare, and a more limited role for the federal government, if Obama should lose we can expect the liberal media to echo Michelle Obama during the 2008 campaign when she complained that America was "just downright mean." Should voters be less than kind to her husband in a year's time, the liberal media will use every spare moment to remind us of how mean we are when they're not reminding us that we're a bunch of frauds and racists.

Yet where is the compassion in saddling future generations with unsustainable debt? Where is the generosity in increasing the cost of health care? Isn't inciting envy and resentment towards those who achieved financial success an act of meanness? And where is President Obama's civility towards his political adversaries when he accuses them of desiring dirtier air, dirtier water, and fewer people with health insurance?

Such a cavalier disposition demonstrates that President Obama and those who support him are treating the Office of President of the United States as if it were an entitlement. On the contrary, it is an office that must be earned and the American electorate is under no obligation to keep the occupant inside the Oval Office should he seek a second term. When Barack Obama was elected President three years ago, he presented himself not only as someone best suited to take on the challenges facing America but as someone who could calm oceans. Needless to say, Obama was elected with the highest of expectations. Should Obama fail to be re-elected next year he will have only himself to blame for failing to address our challenges and for being unable to walk on water. Well, no second coming, no second term.
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