The Col:

Some of the quotes I posted are from Yahoo News, which they probably got from Reuters. One things is true. Both Democrats and established Republicans capitalized on previous statements or relatively minor wrongdoings of Tea Party candidates. As always, there was a lot of negative advertising and character assassination. On the other hand, having a "news commentator" like Sarah Palin support individual candidates is really a conflict of interest. After all, the media and political parties are supposed to be independent of each other (now I can hear everyone going "Really?!").

Well, representative democracy is not about electing capable individuals or intelligent individuals. Representative democracy is a pseudo-popularity contest in which individuals are elected based on how much media exposure they can buy for themselves. and how much negative media bias their opponents can raise against them. To some people some of the things that Tea Party candidates might do or say might seem too far to the right, but obviously a large portion of the American public does agree with them. Otherwise, why would they vote for these candidates?

If Sarah Palin runs for the presidency, it is likely that she will face a fate similar to that of Christine O'Donnell, Sharon Angle and Ken Buck. I think that Sarah Palin attracts a lot of people and reflects their values, but ultimately established Republicans and the public at large will question her ability to be president.

The next Republican elected into office will set about to repealing the Healthcare Reform Act of 2010. That president will also be responsible for undoing the financial nightmare that started with the Bush administration and was aggravated by Obama's bank bailouts. That person will have to raise interest rates while at the same time dumping billions of dollars of treasury bonds that the Federal Reserve has been buying back in order to prop up unemployment below 10%. That person will also be responsible for continuing the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, keep Communist expansion in check, and deal with left-wing Latin American governments, which continue to be unbeatable in Latin American elections. That president will have to deal with the increasing power of the People's Republic of China, techonologically more advanced and nuclearly-armed North Korea and Iran, plus the never-ending mess in Israel-Palestine.

It will be a huge job and the question is, can Sarah Palin do it? It would be unwise to underestimate her. She is a lot more intelligent than she is given credit for, but she lacks experience in foreign policy and managing the national economy. She will also face a Congress and Senate that are incapable of changing and constantly mired in bipartisan politics and lobbying.

If Democrats can capitalize on her lack of experience, while making Joe Biden retire while Hilary Clinton becomes the vice-presidential running mate, it is quite likely that Obama will be reelected. Obama has two years to improve his image, and at this point he has nothing to lose be being more aggressive in his policies. In fact, the more aggressive he becomes, the more it will look like the failure of the government to achieve anything is due to Republicans blocking important bills. Having a minority now might actually be advantageous to the Democrats at the next election because now they can blame Republicans for failing to cooperate in congress.

It wil be interesting in two years time. In the meantime, while the American government is busy with infighting, hard left-wing governments are winning elections by landslides in Latin America. Democracy is a funny thing. People vote, and they rarely get what they really want!