Krauthammer gets it very right:

…November ’08 was one-shot, one-time, never to be replicated. Nor was November ’09 a realignment. It was a return to the norm — and definitive confirmation that 2008 was one of the great flukes in American political history.

The irony of 2009 is that the anti-Democratic tide overshot the norm — deeply blue New Jersey, for example, elected a Republican governor for the first time in 12 years — because Democrats so thoroughly misread 2008 and the mandate they assumed it bestowed. Obama saw himself as anointed by a watershed victory to remake American life. Not letting the cup pass from his lips, he declared to Congress only five weeks after his swearing-in his “New Foundation” for America — from remaking the one-sixth of the American economy that is health care to massive government regulation of the economic lifeblood that is energy.

Moreover, the same conventional wisdom that proclaimed the dawning of a new age last November dismissed the inevitable popular reaction to Obama’s hubristic expansion of government, taxation, spending and debt — the tea party demonstrators, the town hall protesters — as a raging rabble of resentful reactionaries, AstroTurf-phony and Fox News-deranged.

Some rump…

The stars aligned perfectly for the Democrats in 2008 – there was not one additional thing which could have been added to give them a better advantage. And yet their vote total, while a solid win, was fairly modest. The sort of result you’d expect from two evenly matched parties who slugged it out with enthusiasm. Actually, the GOP was in terrible shape in 2008 – short on money, lacking enthusiasm, with an unexciting standard-bearer; and yet, had just a couple things gone right, McCain would be President right now.

But Obama and his Democrats choose to treat their victory as a mandate for change – and not just a mandate for any, old change, but for very ardently leftist change. This in spite of the fact that one of the prime reasons they won was because they hid their leftist agenda behind a fog of centrist rhetoric and the MSM played cover for them. They didn’t win on a leftist platform, but immediately proceeded to govern on one. The reaction we’ve seen is completely natural – the people are not leftist; never have been, never will be. We’re Americans.

Added to this and intensifying the effect has been the stunning incompetence of President Obama. I was discussing this with a friend yesterday and our hope is that Obama is a puppet…because if he’s not, then he’s just a plain and simple idiot. If Obama is lucky, hardly anyone saw that presser in the wake of the Ft Hood attack – my wife saw it live and was just disgusted by it; listening to it on the radio later I was stunned at the complete obtuseness of the man. To talk up Indians while America is in shock over mass murder is, well, just the most amazingly dumb thing imaginable. But this isn’t the first time such things have happened. I’m actually a bit worried that Obama simply will not get the hang of being President and that we’ll be stuck with a moving disaster until January of 2013.

Be that as it may, the playing field has tilted back towards the center/right. But it has not tilted back towards the GOP. The Republican party still has a long way to go to earn the trust and respect of the American people – even though the GOP is likely to score some impressive gains next year, it won’t matter much unless the people actually trust the GOP to do the right thing, once back in power. The people are in the process of taking back their government – our job, as Republicans, is to simply assist them in this task and then carry out the long-needed reforms being demanded. We do that, and we’ll route the left for good in this nation.

Remember that census worker found hanged with the word “fed” scrawled on him? Remember how our liberal friends were hinting darkly at the growth of evil, mean, wicked, racist, knuckle-dragging conservatives out to get Obama? Well, it wasn’t quite like that:

Investigators probing the death of a Kentucky census worker found hanging from a tree with the word “fed” scrawled on his chest increasingly doubt he was killed because of his government job and are pursuing the possibility he committed suicide, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.

Two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said no final conclusions have been made in the case. In recent weeks, however, investigators have grown more skeptical that 51-year-old Bill Sparkman died at the hands of someone angry at the federal government.

But, hey, why let something like facts get in the way of a good story?

And more power to him – after all, it was Obama (0-2 in helping Democrats win elections in 2009) who told Patterson to get out:

The governor is now taking to the air waves to convince New Yorkers he deserves to stay in office.

“What it’s geared to do is talk about his very good record over the last year, the things he’s done for the state, including closing a $35 billion budget,” said veteran political consultant Bill Lynch.

The ads are aimed at improving Paterson’s low poll numbers and sending a message to other Democrats, including President Barack Obama, that he is determined to seek another term in office.

“Once people know the things he’s done for this state they will start to look at him differently,” said Lynch.

Paterson, whose popularity currently hovers in the 20 percent range, was seriously wounded when Obama let it be known he didn’t want Paterson to run because Republicans like Rudy Giuliani consistently beat him in the polls. But Obama’s recent lack of success in backing local candidates, including New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, has empowered Paterson.

The normal way to put this is “rats deserting the sinking ship”, but however else you want to characterize Patterson, “rat” isn’t it. He’s been a loyal, liberal Democrat for decades and Obama cut him off at the knees. Small wonder that Paterson has decided to ignore The One’s advice and do his own thing. Its better, in the end, to go down fighting than to surrender with out a fight. I think we’ll beat Patterson next year – but we’ll have beaten a fighter, not a mere poodle for Obama and the Democrat bosses.

Kill the Bill Rally: Gateway pundit has the details.

A terrible event – but I don’t want anyone to call it an “act of violence” or “a terrible tragedy”. It was an attack – one or more men decided with malice to attack a US military base. We need to get right down to the bottom of this – and, liberals, if the stories of accomplices in custody are true, this is where harsh interrogation might be needed: whoever was involved in this most emphatically does not have a right to remain silent.

UPDATE: AP sources: Fort Hood suspect drew attention of authorities 6 months ago for Internet posts (via Twitter)

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey describes what he calls Obama’s “My Pet Goat” moment, his address to the nation about the attack:

It took Obama almost two full minutes from the time he began speaking until he got around to mentioning the shooting at Fort Hood — the reason everyone tuned into Obama’s speech. The nation wanted some leadership at a time when it appeared that a terrorist attack may have taken place on American soil — and Obama was apparently more concerned about giving a “shout out” to his friends at the Tribal Nations Conference. Indeed, he tells the audience above that he’s been inconvenienced out of delivering his lengthier remarks because the shooting has intruded itself on his daily business.

Its like they’re just determined to be stupid and hateful:

The Vatican expressed “astonishment” and “regret” at Tuesday’s decision from the European Court of Human Rights that crucifixes in public school classrooms are a violation of freedom.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, gave a brief statement today to Vatican Radio in response to the decision.

“The crucifix has always been a sign of God’s offer of love, of union and of welcome for the whole of humanity,” the spokesman said. “It is to be regretted that it has come to be considered as a sign of division, of exclusion and of limitation of liberty. It is not this, and it is not so in the common feeling of our people.”

The Italian government protested the ruling, having contended that crucifixes — often hung in Italian public schools — are national symbol of culture and history.

Father Lombardi echoed this idea.

He called particularly grave “the desire to set aside from the educational world a fundamental sign of the importance of religious values in Italian history and culture.”

The Jesuit added that “religion makes a precious contribution to a person’s formation and moral growth, and is an essential component of our civilization. It is mistaken and myopic to want to exclude it from the educational realm.”

“It is astonishing then that a European court should intervene weightily in a matter profoundly linked to the historical, cultural and spiritual identity of the Italian people,” the Vatican spokesman stated.

What’s next? Tear down the Gothic cathedrals? After all, hard to escape the Christian imagery there, ya know?

This is just more liberal/left stupidity – the sooner these cretins die out and are replaced by the residual, but growing, Christian population of Europe, the better.

I am sure that privately Democrats are worried about the possibility.

Democrats reject any comparisons between Daschle’s electoral demise and Reid’s tough re-election challenge. But pollsters and political experts say Reid is in a tough fight to avoid being the second Democratic Senate leader in six years to be defeated.

In some ways, Reid faces a more formidable re-election challenge than Daschle did. Nevada’s economy has been hit harder than most, with a 13.3% unemployment rate second only to Michigan. Reid trailed two possible Republican challengers in polls taken earlier this fall. His favorability rating of 38% in one poll, a fatal political level in many circumstances, was more than 20 points below Daschle’s in 2003.

Republicans are pulling out the argument they used to oust Daschle and applying it to Reid: that the demands of leading Senate Democrats have pulled the senator leftward and away from his state’s interests.

Reid has responded with new ads highlighting the jobs, money and clout he says he has brought to Nevada.

Lots of signs point to good news for Republicans, and as the national political landscapes shifts in our favor, Reid and other Democrats with find their jobs at risk. According to Donald Lambro of the Washington Times, “the latest Rothenberg Political Report on the 2010 Senate races is an eye-opener.”

“With the landscape changing noticeably over the summer, Democrats can no longer assume that they will have a net gain of seats in next year’s midterm elections,” veteran elections handicapper Stuart Rothenberg told his newsletter subscribers this week.

“Of the 13 Senate seats now regarded as seriously ‘in play,’ seven of them are currently held by Democrats,” Mr. Rothenberg said.

Just three months ago, Mr. Rothenberg wrote that Democratic Senate gains “in the order of 2-4 seats certainly seem reasonable.” Now he says that “gains of that magnitude are still possible, of course, but the most likely outcome is somewhere between a Republican gain of two seats and a Democratic gain of two seats.”

Clearly, there has been a significant and surprisingly rapid change in the country’s political climate, led by a truly grass-roots rebellion against the Democrats’ big spending, big government, high tax policies that threaten to add trillions of dollars to the nation’s ballooning national debt.

Potential Republican pickups in the U.S. Senate include Delaware (Biden’s open seat), Nevada (Harry Reid’s seat), Colorado, Louisiana (Blanche Linoln’s seat), Connecticut (Chris Dodd’s seat), Pennsylvania (Specter’s seat), and Illinois (Obama’s former seat now occupied by Roland Burris).

Yeah. The Democrats are in trouble. Their pursuit of a dangerous left-wing agenda is killing their chances to remain in power.

Harry Reid’s vulnerability is just the tip of the iceberg.

If you were to ask a pro-abortion rights Democrat during an election year what their position on the controversial issue was, they’d probably say “I believe in a woman’s right to choose, but I think the number of abortions should be reduced,” or some variation of that. That little caveat at the end is meant to hide their true, radical abortion views.

The problem is, they do everything in their power to increase the numbers of abortions by making abortions easier to get (even for minors) and easier to pay for.

I’m always reminded of the pro-abortion rights slogan “Keep your laws off my body,” “Keep the government out of my bedroom,” or something stupid like that. So, it amuses me to no end that these pseudo-libertarian baby killers have no problem with the government’s involvement with abortion when it comes to paying for them.

Health care reform should not be used as an opportunity to use federal funds to pay for elective abortions. Health reform should be an opportunity to protect human life – not end it.

Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi’s 2,032-page government takeover of health care does just that.  On line 17, p. 110, section 222 under “Abortions for which Public Funding is Allowed” the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run plan.  The Speaker’s plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered in the Exchange covers abortions.

What is even more alarming is that a monthly abortion premium will be charged of all enrollees in the government-run plan.  It’s right there on line 16, page 96, section 213, under “Insurance Rating Rules.”  The premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account – and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services.

So, not only does the House version of Obamacare include taxpayer-funded abortions, the government has the power to determine “when abortion is allowed.” So, you’ve got the government back in the bedroom, and you got the laws “controlling” your body, etc. etc.

I think even the most ardent pro-abortion rights individual ought to be able to see that the government (read: taxpayers) should not be funding abortions. All it does is put the government in control of the very things the pro-abortion crowd claims to be against.

Still a lot of fight left to be done, so pay heed:

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. Winston Churchill said that “the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits–not animals.” And he said, “There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.”

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done. – Ronald Reagan

Leave no stone unturned. Shirk no task. Do what the duty of the day requires. We shall have them – and we will restore our Nation.

And with CIT out, this just might be the harbinger of worse to come:

Business bankruptcy filings jumped in October, reversing two consecutive months of declining commercial filings and indicating that bankruptcies could continue to rise as the economy struggles to stabilize.

Last month, 7,771 businesses filed for bankruptcy protection, compared to 7,271 that sought shelter from creditors in September, according to data from Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, a private firm that tracks bankruptcy filings.

After two months of decline, the 7% rise in commercial filings shows that businesses are still struggling to access financing and are facing weak demand for their products.

With CIT’s bankruptcy, businesses will find it even harder to obtain financing and that will start a cruel cycle.

There would have been a role for government here if Obama hadn’t already shot his bolt with TARP and the Spendulus boondoggles. You see, the government can, at times (and only for short times) provide some much needed liquidity to small and medium sized business who have solid products, but are having trouble staying afloat or getting launched in an economic downturn. The key here is to understand that if someone isn’t making, mining or growing something, then there’s no point getting involved, at all, in such times. Obama shoveled all the money at entities which just shovel money around…it made their books look good for a quarter, but it didn’t produce any wealth. And as the money was borrowed against the future, Obama’s programs actually made us worse off.

But for those companies that do something useful (grow food, make tools, mine for copper, etc, etc, etc) then its in our best interest to help out as much as we can. This is because wealth isn’t money – money is just a convenience…easier to carry around a $20 to buy your lunch than provide your skills or goods at the local fast food joint, you see? Money can come in handy, but only if its to be used to allow people to exercise their skills to create wealth. Don’t bail out a bank (which only got in to trouble because the people running it got greedy and stupid), but you can send a few bucks to the landscaper who needs to purchase a new truck but can’t get financing in a tight market.

Even so, of course, such interventions are not ideal – and should be given sparingly and terminated as swiftly as possible – but they can play a role in economic stablization and as they result in things being made, mined or grown, we actually have more wealth…wealth which can, of course, be used to pay back the money provided to get things rolling. Right now, the economic wizards are stirring a pot of toxic assets and hoping that recovery emerges from the stew. Ain’t gonna happen. In fact, with all of Obama’s borrowing, we’re just being buried deeper…and more firms won’t get financing (because Obama borrowed it all, you see?) and thus will go under or not get started and this will, in turn, cause more firms to lose financing, etc.