Republicans Stubbornness Will Cost Them Dearly

If ever there has been a defining moment in the past four years, it was probably last years midterm elections. That November laid bare a lesson for all to learn who still cared about the thing that matters most to politicians: what the American people want, the American people get.

Even with an unprecedented level of GOP gerrymandering lead by former House majority leader Tom DeLay, and with the typical fund-raising advantages, even with the most feared and respected political operative of the past decade hunkered down in the White House and a recent record of devastating last-minute electoral victories, the people made up their minds and went to the polls with a near singular purpose: put Democrats back in charge of Congress.

Some say that it was the Iraq war all along, while others will say it was the congressional page sex scandal that was the tipping point. Disenfranchisement of the religious-right for not getting everything they had been promised by President Bush is another argument. But all of these things can be traced back to an unhappy country that wanted change in Washington, and what the voters want, the voters get.

The President's polling numbers show that he is considered one of the worst leaders in our short history. That's an interesting feat for someone who won a second term. You'd think that someone so reviled wouldn't stand a chance, that such strong negative opinions would have been formed long ago.

His handling of the Afghani and Iraqi wars were at one time his greatest strength, but now they've become his greatest weakness. Had he settled in for the long haul in Afghanistan, that country may well be what he desperately wished Iraq was today -- a shining beacon of democracy in a hostile land that could desperately use a lot more of it.