The Republicans' Problem? They Bought Into Their Own Bullshit

This paragraph from a National Review article, written of course by a right-winger, made me laugh (via Ed Kilgore):

[C]onservatives exhibiting less hysteria do remain puzzled by the polls. After all, the Obama presidency has been a trainwreck of Carter-esque magnitude. Almost every historical predictor shows that Romney should have a sizeable lead: Unemployment is high, consumer confidence is low, two-thirds of voters think the country is on the wrong track, more believe we’re worse off now than we were four years ago, household income has plummeted, gas prices are hovering near record highs, and most voters perceive America to be in decline.

I just think this is hysterically funny. A "trainwreck of Carter-esque magnitude"? Really? Did I miss the story about Osama bin Laden rising from the dead?  Was ObamaCare not actually passed into law, making Obama into the first president to pass health care reform in a century?  Did Obama actually fail to prevent the Great Bush/Cheney Depression? Did he not pass Wall Street Reform? Did the stock market not double since Obama's swearing-in? Did Obama not save the American auto industry -- and thus save a million American jobs in the process -- when Romney wanted to let Detroit go bankrupt?  Did Obama not end BushCo's Iraq Debacle? Did he not repeal "Don't Ask Don't Tell"?  Did Gaddafi not get toppled? Has Al Qaeda not been crushed? Did Obama not reform the Federal Student Loan Program?  Did he not begin the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan?

These are just a few of Obama's first-term achievements, most if not all of which were accomplished without any help from the GOP.  Indeed, the GOP admits that its goal was to make Obama a one-term president, and Republicans have openly bragged about how they have refused to compromise with the President.

I believe that Mitt Romney -- and probably every other Republican -- simply bought into their own horseshit about Obama being a failure as a president and assumed that whomever won the GOP nomination would win the presidency. That's why Romney refuses to discuss specifics of what he'd do if he won. His campaign never formulated any specifics.  Why would Romney need to do that given that the Obama Presidency has been a trainwreck of Carter-esque magnitude? Why would he need to ever release his tax returns? 

Romney simply assumed this election would be a cakewalk.  That's why he had no problem taking positions during the primary that were right of even Rick Santorum.  In his mind, it didn't matter what he said or did during the primary season, because the winner of the GOP nomination would win the presidency and any troublesome thing that was said prior to the GOP Convention could simply be etch-a-sketched away.

Why such a gross miscalculation by the Republicans? Because they apparently thought that they could etch-a-sketch away George W. Bush, who was nowhere to be seen at their convention. Polls have consistently shown that the American people blame Bush more for the bad economy than they do Obama.  I think the GOP's' biggest problem is that the American people as a whole have a lot better memory than most Republicans thought.