It wasn’t that long ago I was genuinely concerned that Obama was doing such a horrible job he would destroy the chances of a black ever being elected President again.  Then along came citizen Cain who emerged and provided the left with the opportunity to teach us that the only thing more repugnant, vile, and unacceptable than a pro-life woman is a black conservative. 

Democrat strategists making the assertion that conservatives back Cain because they are racist moves this campaign from regular political theater to theatre of the absurd. Such convoluted and wild accusations are so far fetched and desperate one could reasonably conclude they must believe Obama is such a disaster he’s also ruining future chances, including 2012 down ticket campaigns, for all liberals.  Now that’s what I call progress.   

Thomas Sowell points out that if Obama’s 90% black vote from 2008 shrinks 15 points to a still very impressive 75%, and all other categories hold steady, he loses.  That’s gotta be a sobering reality even to the most hopeless kool-aid drunkard. Far be it from me to quibble with the math of an Economics PhD.  

I am beginning to believe the overriding consideration on the GOP side is evolving from who can beat Obama to how big do we want our landslide.  Historians tell us that a second term election is a referendum on the incumbent.  By that measure Obama should be booking lecture gigs by next Christmas.  Now there is a change I can believe in! 

Not six months ago no one, I mean no one, gave Newt Gingrich a shot, at all.  He is now leading the pack, ahead of Mitt Romney, establishment GOP and Democrat favorite.  Think about that.  In spite of my exceedingly accurate predictions, even in my deepest cynicism I did not fathom that Obama would be so bad that Gingrich, the only Republican out there who exceeds Sara Palin’s unfavorable ratings, would represent an obvious improvement. This would be an interesting match-up, facilitating a center stage demonstration of the difference between sounding smart and being smart.  

I have held from the get go, despite the mainstream medias mindless gibberish about a weak field, that any one of the GOP hopefuls would be a vast improvement.  This, while acknowledging many better choices, Daniels, Christie. Ryan, and yes, Palin, decided not to run.  

What has become more apparent is that the GOP doesn’t necessarily need a strong field because the Democrat field is empty, even, or especially, with Obama in it.  You have to field a team to win.  Judging by all the Democrats deciding not to appear with their defacto party leader when he visits their home districts it looks like no one even wants to admit being on his team.  The self-preservation instincts of the lowly incumbus politicus can be so cold at times. OneDemocrat running for Congress is attacking his Republican rival by accusing him of supporting Obama. 

This is not say it won’t be a vicious battle.  Democrats, their billion-dollar war chest, a ready army of big labor foot soldiers, and the party steno pool known as the mainstream press are absolutely going all in for the win, every bit as wholeheartedly devoted to salvaging their investment in Obama this time as they were in the initial product offering.  The institutional ego of the knee-pad media won’t allow for admitting the possibility they were wrong.  Why waste time belaboring the obvious when there are conservatives to destroy?     

Domestically we have record long-term unemployment, record home foreclosures, green energy and Wall Street cronyism, border gun-running scandal, first ever lower credit rating, and a seemingly incurable addiction to spending to accompany and exacerbate record deficits. It is also approaching 1000 days since the incumbent Democrat presented a budget. Aside from the astonishing display of constitutional duty shirking it also lays bare their indifference to actual solutions. It is bad enough to prioritize maintaining the status quo, but even worse when they make continuing deterioration the new status quo.  

Overseas we are supposed to believe two dead terrorist leaders somehow comprises a serious anti-terrorism strategy, a growing nuclear threat in Iran, growing anti Americanism in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and an Arab spring fast morphing into an Islamist winter making Israel more vulnerable than ever. Meanwhile we are so in hoc to the other world super power they show as much respect to our intellectual property and trade laws as they would any dead-beat.  

Okay then, rephrase the preceding two paragraphs into referendum format with a closing question asking whether a majority would vote to either stay on this track or try something different.  

Now you see why I remain hopeful.  All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, and all the agendized propagandistic snake oil spin in the world, cannot put a shine on the turd that is the Obama presidency. If they can, and a majority swallows it, the fundamental transformation Obama originally campaigned on will be realized, along with the death of American exceptionalism.

Yes, the stakes are that high, and no, this did not happen overnight.  This is the obvious culmination of the trajectory we have been on since Eisenhower. This is "A Time For Choosing" 2.0 

I almost said we get what we deserve if we let this happen, but we don’t.  What we deserve is a President with a modicum of competence who takes the oath of office to heart.  What we need is President who does not view the constitution as a hindrance to his agenda but rather one who gets that his agenda is the constitution.  

It wasn’t so long ago something that basic was a good-faith assumption, no matter which side won.  Another taste of change offered up by the tyransformational one.