This is a totally hypothetical scenario, of course.

The base believes in four things: The US should be the world policeman. Medicare costs should not be scrutinized. Taxes should always be cut. The budget deficits should be reduced.

There seems to be no recognition that these goals conflict. If The GOP gets back in power soon the budget will be a bigger mess then last time thanks to all the talk about death panels and Medicare.

Are the Dems in a worse position than a year ago? Beyond a couple of local elections, no, they aren’t. Once we get past the surface, however, the same stagnant, intellectually bankrupt, unimaginative New Democrats and Blue Dogs that helped to bring our country to its current predicament is still there and has not changed in any meaningful way in the last ten years. Why would they? The party’s leaders are awash in campaign contributions, its pundits are reveling in the luxury of making fun of the opposition, and its rank-and-file has been whipped into such a state of agitation over their own impotence that their first priority is to run primary challenges in major races across the country. It may seem that the GOP have derailed their agenda, but in reality it is the Dems that went off the rails long ago and has yet to begin to recover.

It sounds like the GOP has learned the RIGHT lesson: try to get away with everything you can while in power, and blame it all on your opponents when you’re the opposition…to win back power. Repeat. The public seems to have a short enough attention span as not to remember these things.