Crisis? What Crisis?
An unpopular president (though popular enough be re-elected) ends his term, the economy melts down, the candidate was the oldest in the history of the republic (and possibly the most heroic since the first president), running against a figure of such historic significance, the nation couldn’t see past his aura.
And the winner still won by only 53-46—with enough states close enough to switch next time around that the result is by no means certain to be repeated.
The Republican Party faces a long list of problems with no clear national leader and an identity crisis that will play out during a period of good will for the first African-American elected president.
Barack Obama not only won a clear majority of the votes Tuesday night, but he won with a coalition that dramatically recolored the Electoral College map and creates an opportunity for Democrats to have the upper hand after a long period of Republican electoral dominance.
It is the combination of Obama’s success among young voters and Latino voters that many Republican strategists see as particularly troubling to their party’s long-term health.
“We learned from the Ronald Reagan years how generational support for a candidate can ripple through the demographics for years to come,” said one leading GOP strategist close to the McCain campaign.
In other words, young voters who were attracted to Reagan in 1980 remained loyal to Republicans as they aged, providing the base on the party’s presidential success over the past 25 years.
Barack Obama won relatively fair and square, and has whatever mandate he can claim and grasp—no more, no less.
But the GOP came close enough in Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Colorado, Missouri to make a race of it. That’s 106 electoral college votes—enough to have knotted the race in a tie. (Then imagine the howls and imprecations when Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman threw the election to McCain.)
The Democrats have their chance to show us how they’ll govern. I thinks that’s all the Republicans need.