Obama’s Re-election Chances

Gene Lyons is a liberal political columnist with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. In a “Salon” article titled, “Why Obama is the favorite for 2012,” Lyons says Republicans are handicapped by having leading candidates like Gingrich (three marriages—considered one too many), Huckabee (Obama grew up in Kenya), and Michelle Bachmann (Concord’s “shot heard ‘round the world” took place in New Hampshire, not Massachusetts). No kidding.

But something else Lyons said better explains Obama’s strength:

In Wisconsin, Gov. Walker's brazen attempt to break the unions and defund the Democratic Party has sparked mass demonstrations dwarfing tea party extravaganzas the press made so much of -- hardhats and university teaching assistants marching together for the first time in a generation. If President Obama's looking for a parade to get in front of, that would be the one.

Lyons is right. The Wisconsin demonstrations were both large and intense. Democrats are fighting for their lives, as the Madison show tells us. We have talked about how people threatened with the loss of what they already possess invariably fight harder than those striving to gain new territory. Now we see the phenomenon starkly before us.

Fear. Revolutions are hard. The “old order“ will do anything to prevail.