A Few Predictions on Election Day

I think Obama will win it, but that's not my prediction. My predictions are about what happens if Obama wins.

First of all, much of the right wing will turn on John McCain and quick. The Hannity's and Limbaughs of the right wing have hated him for years, and you know it is sticking in their throats that he is their candidate. The way he has run his life (but not his campaign) is the antithesis of the way they want to deal with Democrats, as illustrated by a quote from Rush back when McCain wasn't the nominee.

Mr. McCain, Ronaldus Magnus did reach out to Democrats -- to defeat them!

. . . We view those people as threats to the American way of life, as we've always known it. We view liberals as a threat to the founding of this country. We view them as a threat to the future. We view them as a threat to the traditions and institutions that have defined this country's greatness. We view them as people who need to be defeated, not worked with.

So if McCain is defeated, Limbaugh will be shedding some tears for his country, but not for McCain.

Second, the election will prove, to Limbaugh Conservatives, that they should be more conservative and more aggressive. McCain's loss won't because of the unpopularity of the positions he's had to take, or the dwindling popularity of the Bush administration. It will instead be because he didn't define himself as a conservative strongly enough.

I don't really know what the Limbaugh Conservatives are going to do over Obama in the short term. In the long term he, like every other elected liberal, will be another Clinton, to be vilified and attacked constantly. But for the next week or so they might see some wisdom in letting the rhetoric cool a little, as the gap between how they are describing Obama and how he actually looks (and is) is pretty wide right now. That said, maybe they will jam down the gas pedal and attack him even more. Hard to know.

I have to say I'm looking forward to it though.