The Real Losers, Some Advice and Mitt Romney

Another election behind us.  This one turned out Ok.  We accepted Michele Bachmann and kept President Barack Obama.  That is a deal I would take any day.  Nothing is perfect but this is close enough. 

Let's begin with what we got:  America continues on the right track and will likely be headed in that direction for the next four years with or without the Republicans.  The Supreme Court is safe for now with no crazies waiting in the wings to be appointed by a Republican president.  We won't gut the economic recovery by selling out the poor and middle class so that the rich and ultra rich get tax breaks.

The real loser:  Not Mitt Romney.  He will get over it and take his quarter billion and move on.  But Carl Rove how do you answer to some of the richest and most powerful people in this country (and maybe the world; we'll never know) and tell them that you wasted $390 million of their dollars?  Maybe the best images of Tuesday night was of Rove telling Fox News that they should not call Ohio because it was too early only to be told by the number crunchers in the back room that they could call this with 99.95% certainty.  Priceless!  Rove looked over his shoulder on set a couple of times.  I wonder who he is expecting?

Some advice:  So here is my observation.  Most of my right wing buddies, and I do have many of them only watch, read and hear what reinforces their own opinions and ideology.  They go to right wing websites, right wing newspapers, right wing bloggers and the grand daddy of the all, Fox News for all of their information.  They get all the red meat they need.  The only issue is that they are often wrong.  Just ask poor Dick Morris who is often wrong but was really wrong predicting a big Romney win.  What a surprise.  

So here is the advice.  Look around you.  The media is not what it used to be.  Go to outlets that are both right and left and try to pick a couple that are pretty accurate.  I for one went to CNN on election night and Fox News.  I knew what MSNBC would be say.  Fox was beautiful; deer in the headlights.  On a regular basis I watch both MSNBC and Fox just for entertainment but I certainly don't pretend that either is my source for news.  I would choose ABC or CBS for that.  If you want to get blindsided next time, keep doing what your are doing.  I for one hope you do.

Mitt Romney:  I am sure you are a nice guy one on one.  But you had a hard time connecting with people that have to go to work every day.  That is understandable.  But there are two things that lost this election for you in a big way.  1.) You just cannot flip flop on big ideas like health care and abortion.  You cannot be for something and then against it and then kind of for it all in the same race even if it is a primary and general election race.  2.) You cannot think that the American people are stupid enough to forget your campaign manager saying that you can Etch-E-Sketch away positions.  It is one thing to do it and another to say that you are going to do it.  Your campaign team also said that they were not going to let "facts" get in the way of your campaign message.  Again, people are not that stupid but your campaign manager thinks we are.

We need to remember that we still have a lot of challenges ahead of us in the next four years.  There is a lot to do and real work lies ahead.  The campaign is over and it is time to govern again.  It would be great if the right and the left could find common ground to solve very real issues that face our country and our world.  Part of me wants to think that it will be different this time around.  But the other part of me looks at recent history and the divide in this nation and I have to temperate my enthusiasm.  We wait and we will see.