A midterm postmortem

The first question that should be brought up is: will Obama lose the presidency and the Senate or will Republicans lose the House? As I said last week, the next two years won't be a repeat of the Clinton-Gingrich showdown because if there is another government shutdown, the public will not stand for any more gridlock. So, either Obama or Boehner will get a nasty surprise in 2012 from Americans who are expecting the economy to be fixed.

Where Obama Went Wrong
I personally think that the president should have focused on fixing the economy instead of pushing for health care reform. 2009 was a very bad year and people wanted the recession to end. The health care law, while long overdue, was ripe of things that catered to the insurance industry. Obama should have continued focusing on adding jobs--the stimulus was a start, but it should have continued. 

He should have articulated why repealing the Bush tax cuts was the right thing to do instead of letting the folks at Fox News and Fox Business engage in total intellectual dishonesty by claiming that reverting the tax rates back to Clinton-era levels would be "the biggest tax increase in history." Instead, 47 House Democrats ended up arguing in favor of keeping the tax cuts.

The Tea Party Influence
So, we will have a bunch of lawmakers who want to return to the '90s by uttering the "cut, cut, cut" mantra. Hmm, here's what we could get in the next six years if they also win the Senate and the White House in '12: 

• lots of programs cut because they don't fit the Tea Party philosophy
• government aversion to infrastructure spending leading to another I-35W bridge collapse
• $5/gallon gas paralyzing America due to no real solution (after all, no one wants to raise the gas tax, and I don't know if any other alternatives like a vehicle per mile tax would be brought up any time soon) and/or a war with Iran, which would also add to the deficit (something Tea Partiers say is a priority in reducing)

What's Next For Obama
The president should not attempt to triangulate like Clinton because if he does, he will have a challenger from his left flank, and if that happens, the Democratic Party will be divided for a generation. After all, if the prez moves to the middle and fights off a challenger in the primary, white liberals may go Green or stay at home during the election. If Obama is toppled in the primary or elects not to run for reelection, blacks would all of a sudden stay at home two years from now and may become strategic nonvoters, only voting Democratic if their conditions are met.

Instead, Obama should  shift the onus to the Republicans since they think their plans are better. He can only do much in the way of compromise before he must invoke his agenda.