By Nile Gardiner

gnore the revisionist hype in sections of the liberal media about President Obama staging a (mythical) political comeback – this is a presidency with an approval rating of 45 percent (according to the RealClear Politics poll of polls), that presides over a nation where just 27 percent of voters think the country is moving in the right direction, and which just 29 percent of Americans think will be returned to power in 2012. The White House may be claiming a couple of political wins in the dying embers of the lame duck Congress after expending a great deal of political capital in the Senate over the reckless ratification of the Moscow-friendly START Treaty and the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, but these are issues barely on the radar screens of most American voters in the lead-up to 2012, an election which will be dominated by the economy and health care reform.

The political landscape still looks strikingly bleak for the “transformational president” as he goes into 2011. 2010 was a stunningly bad year for Barack Obama, no matter how much the likes of The New York Times or The Washington Post might try to sugar coat it. Here are four key reasons why it was a year Obama will want to forget:

1. The midterm elections were a defeat of epic proportions for the Obama Presidency

When Barack Obama spoke of a “shellacking” at the midterms, it was a huge understatement. The Republicans scored a significantly bigger win than they did in 1994, with their biggest gain in the House of Representatives in 62 years – since 1948. Fortunately for the Democrats, just 37 Senate seats were up for election, preventing what would have been an almost certain handover of power in the upper house too. Republicans also made huge gains at the gubernatorial level, with the GOP now holding 29 governorships to the Democrats’ 20. Republicans also picked up 680 seats in state legislatures, the highest figure in the modern era.

2. Conservatism grew increasingly dominant in America

The midterms were certainly no flash in the pan, but part of a broader conservative revolution that swept America in 2010. As a recent Gallup survey showed, 48 percent of Americans now describe themselves as “conservative”, compared to 32 percent who call themselves “moderate”, and just 20 percent who call themselves “liberal”. Conservatives now outnumber liberals by nearly 2.5 to 1, a ratio that is likely to increase in 2011. The percentage of Americans who are conservative has risen six points since 2006 and eight points since 1994. Barack Obama, the most liberal US president of the modern era, has a natural liberal constituency comprised of just one in five Americans, which certainly does not bode well for 2012.

Read more @……http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100070107/forget-the-liberal-hype-about-a-comeback-2010-was-a-stunningly-bad-year-for-barack-obama-and-2011-could-be-even-worse/

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has not appeared on television — or anywhere in public — since early November. That’s an eternity for the man who has been the most vocal and visible leader of the RNC in recent memory.

Steele’s silence is even more deafening considering his own party’s historic gains in the midterm elections. While other top Republicans are making the most of their moment in the sun, Steele appears to be flying under the radar.

But the chairman, who has yet to announce whether he will run for re-election, has his reasons.
He and the RNC have been hit with a string of negative stories, including the news that the committee is more than $15 million in debt and is having trouble paying its vendors on time. Critics charge that Steele has been a poor steward of the party’s finances and allowed its high-dollar donor program to languish.

And a handful of the critics aren’t just talking about what they view as Steele’s failings; they are starting campaigns to replace him. Meanwhile, Steele has been out of sight and it’s starting to appear less likely that he will seek another term.

Read More at ABC NEWS

~~John Cronin~~

THE HUFFINGTON POST

So as President Obama gears up for a re-election battle in 2012, the economy is unlikely to be much different than the one that sank the Democrats in 2010. The question is whether Obama and the Democrats can change the national understanding of what caused the economic collapse and who is blocking the recovery.

In this enterprise, I don’t have high expectations for Obama. I cannot recall a president who generated so much excitement as a candidate but who turned out to be such a political dud as chief executive. Nor do his actions since the election inspire confidence that he will be reborn as a fighter.

The president’s defenders offer an assortment of alibis for the epic defeat. The in-party always loses seats in the first mid-term (but not this many). The recession was far more protracted than anticipated (Obama’s own chief economic adviser, Christy Romer knew how bad things were pressed for a much larger stimulus than Obama was willing to embrace.) The Republicans blocked him at every turn (yes, and he kept trying to conciliate rather than fight.)

Consider that the Democrats got particularly shellacked, as Obama put it, among the elderly. When you remember that the Republicans hope to gut Social Security, this is quite remarkable. When you add the fact that Democrats have been far more committed to defending Medicare than Republicans who want to turn it into a voucher, the sheer political malpractice of this election loss among seniors is just stupefying.

Because of the poor design of the Obama health plan, and the ineptitude of explaining or marketing it, older voters came away convinced that the scheme would come at the expense of their Medicare. Even today, as a fiscal commission appointed by Obama tries to take more money out of Medicare and Social Security, our president and his budget wonk advisers cannot bring themselves to draw a simple line in the sand and declare that the Democrats will never cut Social Security benefits. Had Obama done so before the election and dared the Republicans to match the pledge, dozens of Democratic House seats might have been saved.

READ MORE AT THE HUFFINGTON POST……http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/post_1307_b_786612.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=112210&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FeatureMore&utm_term=Daily+Brief

[Editor's Commentary: One of the definitions of insanity says that if you do the same thing over and over again but keep hoping for different results, you have a serious mental disorder. The Democrats are said to be poised to vote to keep Nancy "Landslide" Pelosi in her Speaker position. This after THE most stunning rebuke of a failed Congress and a failed Presidency in the lifetimes of most Americans. Go figure.]

~~John Cronin~~

By: Charles Babington
AP NEWS

WASHINGTON (AP) – Despite suffering near-historic election losses this month, House Democrats appear ready to keep their leadership team intact, with Nancy Pelosi of California still on top.

Both parties will hold closed-door House leadership elections Wednesday. But the main focus will involve the soon-to-be minority party, the Democrats.

Pelosi, the nation’s first female speaker, appeared to soothe enough angry colleagues Tuesday to ensure her election to the top post. Barring a surprise, she will become minority leader in January, when the new Congress convenes. The second- and third-ranking Democrats seem likely to hold their positions as well.

(CNN) – Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, announced Tuesday that he has been re-elected as Senate majority leader by his Democratic colleagues.

[Editor's Comment:  Perfect....this will remind voters why they threw so many of Harry's buddies out onto the sidewalk two weeks ago!]