Post-Election Recovery

Well... that was disappointing.

I'm not going to deny it- I thought Romney was going to win, I expected him to win, and he didn't. The popular vote was close, but Obama won every close state to dominate the electoral vote count- which is the one that matters. Congratulations to him.

Some thoughts as I recover:

1) The more I learned about Romney, the more I liked him. I really thought he'd do better at governing the country than winning the election- even be the GOP's version of Clinton, without the potential for scandal. Whereas last year Romney was choice because he was electable, by Nov. 6th I had become a fan of his, and I think the US will miss out on a possible great President.

2) We live in a strange place where a large percentage of the population doesn't think the President has much influence over the economy but is paramount on issues regarding issues about sex. Given how bad the economy has been (high unemployment... a $16 trillion debt... high gas prices), I thought no President could survive re-election. Maybe my priorities are different than most voters.

3) The issue that concerns me the most? The Supreme Court. Four Justices are over 74 years old. There is a chance for the next President to radically alter the direction of the Court for a generation.

4) The GOP is about to go to war with itself. There are several factions within the GOP, and each faction will claim their side that if people had just listened to them, they would have won. You have the Establishment/Bush wing of the GOP, the Tea Party wing of the GOP, the Libertarian wing of the GOP, the Social Conservative wing of the GOP- expect a lot of infighting over the next 2-4 years.

I can list my own items of what I think the GOP should do- embrace a "No bailouts, no subsidies" financial philosophy, stop fighting gay marriage (in fact, get in front of it; married couples vote GOP more than single people- we should want more happily married couples, regardless of gender), frame the abortion debate better (someone should have found a loophole to drop Akin from the ticket, and I say this as a firm pro-lifer)... but everyone who is a Republican will have their own wish list. We'll fight it out and determine the direction.

((For the record, I think the next time the Democrats lose, they'll also have interparty fighting; like the GOP under George W, they are sticking together under the President. Once they lose that, expect the factions to start fighting))

5) We went into this election with a Democratic President, a Democratic-controlled Senate, and a GOP-controlled House. We left this election with the exact same makeup. Is the message we really want to send to the politicians "You're doing a great job- keep it up!"???

6) In the end, I want the country to do well. I don't agree with the President philosophically, and I still retain that he does not have the experience or skillset of actually running the country. But he has the job until 2016, so here's hoping he makes the correct decisions.