President Obama is Officially Running for Re-Election

Well, there really was little doubt, but frankly, I wouldn't want to extend my stay if I were Obama. Would you? Not only has he got a gaggle of crazy people vying for his job (though oddly, none are 100% officially declared), those same people--with the help of FOX "News," AM talk radio and a host of right-wing internet sites--have spent the last two plus years assailing him. Now, it is not unusual for a sitting President to be under attack by the opposition party. But it is unusual to have them flinging the type and volume of poo they've been flinging. (Rant continues below. . .)



Not all of the poo flinging has been from the right though, and some of it is somewhat deserved. Despite the super-leftist, Marxist label the right stuck on Obama, many liberals think he's not liberal enough. Me included. And I think he folds too quickly, and gives the right much, much more than he should. I have a lot of problems with the administration, particularly where they didn't diverge from the Bush administration enough. But. . .I'm 100% certain I will vote for him. Because while I'm much less enthused about Obama's second term than I was for his first, I'm even more energized against his competition than I was before.

In 2010, after two overwhelmingly Democratic election victories, that famous American short attention span elected a whole mess of Republicans. And a whopping mess they've turned out to be. They took their victory (won on the promise of jobs, jobs, jobs) and began jamming through long-held hard-right-wing pet policies, claiming that was what they were elected to do. Anti gay measures, anti union laws, anti abortion restrictions. . .all with a level of meanness (with a heavy helping of crazy). Whoever is President from 2013-2017 will likely appoint at least one more Supreme Court Justice. A President Palin, Gingrich, Bachmann, Huckabee or even Pawlenty could be a disaster for the makeup of an already right-leaning court. We Democrats--whatever level our dissatisfaction with the President--can't make the same self-destructive mistake we made in 2010 by not voting. Now is no time for a protest vote.