I am sure there are a lot of potential Republican candidates who are re-evaluating their moves now.
Mitt Romney just canceled showing up at a debate this week - so I guess nobody in the Republican Party wants to talk much for a few weeks until this news dies down.
Still, this will certainly kill any Republican innuendos that Obama is a military wimp.
Lots can happen before November 2012, but this certainly hasn’t hurt Obama’s chances for re-election!!
Trump might actually get the nomination, as maybe nobody else will want it.
Sure, but those weren’t going to be a big deal in the election, anyway. Before this, everyone was expecting that the Republicans would mostly be attacking Obama over the economy, and now, everyone’s just even more certain of that fact. And of course, there’s still plenty of time for some other unexpected event (or more likely, a half-dozen of them) that’ll also have an effect on the outcome.
Things change. Republicans were skewering him for perceived wishy-washiness and weakness with regards to Libya. This is a pretty epic win, so even if the Republicans NEVER bring up national security, now the Democrats can. “Obama brought bin Laden to justice. What has (insert Republican nominee) done to improve security?”
Just to remind everyone: At this point in his first term, George HW Bush was a hero for the very successful Operation Desert Storm, and had approval ratings that peaked at 92%. He was thought to be unbeatable, so every major Democrat stayed out of the race, allowing an obscure Arkansas Governor to win the nomination as the sacrificial lamb.
Certainly much credit is due to Clinton’s awesome ability as a politician, but the real lesson of 1991 is that voters have a very short memory. The economy started declining, and soon it was more important to the people that George Bush didn’t know what a grocery scanner was and seemed to be insulated from what they were feeling (“Message: I care!”).
Those factors totally outweighed the collapse of the USSR, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the wildly successful Desert Storm so much that within a year Bush’s approval ratings fell from 89% in February of 1991 to 29% by July of 1992. An astonishing collapse entirely due to the economy. I don’t recall any major scandals - just a President who appeared out of touch and disengaged at a time when the public was worried.
9.1% unemployment. No president since WWII has gotten re-elected with unemployment over 7.2% and only one has gotten re-elected with it over 5.6.
$4.00 a gallon gasoline.
Houses have lost 7% of their value in 2011 alone.
War in Libya that will end up breaking the NATO alliance.
And most importantly, his ardent supporters aren’t as enthused about him anymore. Gays are disappointed he hasn’t endorsed gay marriage. Code Pink is upset he hasn’t surrendered in the ear or closed Gitmo. The college kids don’t think he’s cool.
The Code Pink vote is minuscule. If the Republicans nominate Michele Bachmann, the fact that Obama’s only endorsed civil unions isn’t going to stop gays from stampeding to the polls to vote against her. Mitt Romney’s probably got the best record on gay rights of any plausible candidate, and it’s pretty bad. Not that anyone’s ever won the presidency on the strength of the gay vote.
I have to guess “war”. Of course, Obama never ran on surrendering in either war when he won last time, so I don’t think it was the pro-surrender enthusiasts that pushed him over the top.
i’d suggest you spend a few minutes over at Michael Moore’s website, and see that he expected exactly that, and he’s not only upset that Obama hasn’t, but that he’s started this new mess in Libya.
With the gay marriage thing - he got rid of DADT, won’t that be worth something? Integration of the military helped with Civil Rights in the long run, or so I’ve been told. That and soldiers based in the UK seeing how we did it over here
