Barack Obama’s Holiday Card List

If Obama wins reelection, he’s going to have a long list of holiday cards* to send out. Sure, he’ll have all sorts of fundraisers to thank. He’ll even give the normal lip service Democrats give to unions have their massive get out of the vote efforts, even though he won’t really do much for them over the next 4 years.

But Obama’s most elaborate holiday cards will have to go to the many Republicans assisting him in his reelection efforts by saying and doing things most designed to motivate the Democratic base. Of course, Mittens and his “I’m not concerned about the very poor” deserves a big thanks. If you’re not even going to make Democratic strategists work to create a narrative that paints you as a plutocrat, why are you even running?

There’s also the states. John Kasich deserves his own invitation to the Obama reelection party. His attack on public unions has made Ohioans so angry that, despite the bad economy and the cultural issues that have always made older, whiter states like Ohio difficult for Obama, a recent poll has him defeating Romney 49-42. Given Obama’s problems, that’s a big lead. Romney’s plutocrat image won’t play well in the Buckeye State. I’m far from saying Ohio is some kind of a sure thing for the Democrats, but this is a very good sign. And a good sign for Sherrod Brown’s Senate reelection campaign too.

In all seriousness, yes the economy still sucks and gas prices are high and there’s lots of reasons Obama could lose this, including the 40 billion dollars of Citizens United money that is going to paint Obama as Osama on every commercial break for 4 months. But the Republicans are really screwing themselves here. Given that the presidential election is fought state-by-state, I think we should all appreciate the Republicans destroying themselves in so many key battleground states. If Romney can’t win Ohio, I don’t see how he wins the election. Wisconsin Democrats are more motivated than any in the country. Minnesota Republicans are trying to get a right to work a person to death bill on the ballot; that’s sure to help Romney in a red-leaning but theoretically competitive state…. Indiana is really Republican and of all the states Obama won in 08, it seems the least likely to vote for him again. But Mitch Daniels’ own right to work a person to death law isn’t very popular with voters and won’t help Romney be able to ignore the Hoosier state.

And then you have Arizona. Jan Brewer, evidently concerned that Scott Walker and Nikki Haley were outcrazying her, has decided to declare a full-fledged war on public sector unions. She is shepherding a bill through the Arizona legislature that bans collective bargaining for public sector unions, barring cities and counties from paying workers who are using work time to do union business, and eliminating payroll dues deductions. Essentially, Arizona is moving to make public sector unionism illegal. Republicans estimate this will save taxpayers $550 million over seven years. That savings isn’t from paying lawyers to negotiate union contracts either–they are openly saying that they will slash the salaries of government workers.

Now I don’t know if Obama can win Arizona. I do know it is the #1 McCain-voting state that Obama is targeting. It is a very strange state. But its extremism and a motivated Latino populace might make this competitive, especially if Brewer continues to alienate new sectors of the state.

If Obama wins, we have so many Republicans to thank. I hope they continue helping the president will reelection.

* Yes, I am saying “holiday card” intentionally in the hopes of irritating a conservative.