weekly response

This will change things. Since the 2010 elections, when Republicans took control of the House, they have been putting their chips on government failure. So goes the tired theory: if these four years are miserable, the American people will demand a new president.

This might have worked. But it depended on a broad swath of the electorate getting excited, really amped, about their nominee. And no one is going to get excited about Mitt Romney.

Who would? Who could? It's not that he's a Mormon, though this will certainly turn off extremist Christians. The problem is that he changes his political persuasion depending on the election, and as a result, he is impossible to like. He is uncomfortable in his own skin because he sheds it whenever his aides, or the media, suggest. He's the caricature of a flip-flopping politician.

Sure, many Republicans will choke down their reflux and vote against President Obama - that is, if they can drag themselves to the polls after their candidate's relentless campaign of humiliating, emasculating ass-kissing.

And then there's the rest of the field. I could detail their flaws as candidates, but suffice to say, they are all too conservative, and, in most cases, too inexperienced to run a serious campaign against a centrist, incumbent president. The liberal youth and intelligentsia would come out in droves to vote against Rick Santorum, who proudly bears the flag of homophobic vitriol. No one takes Michele Bachmann seriously following the HPV vaccine fiasco. Herman Cain has never been elected to political office and offers few new ideas. And somehow, after a splashy entrance into the race, Rick Perry has managed to anger virtually all possible constituencies.

In order to see their strategy through to fruition, Republicans in Congress would have to ride a groundswell of enthusiasm, sweeping President Obama and his henchmen out of office in a vindication of conservative values. But with one of these individuals as the standard-bearer? America isn't going to buy it.

This week, President Obama asks Congress to pass his jobs bill once again. But now that we know the field of presidential candidates, the Republican trump card rings hollow. Now that we see the alternatives to President Obama, there is no longer a reason to replace him.

Of course, the Republican strategy will probably not, in fact, change. I expect a long year of forced enthusiasm and awkward rallies as Mitt Romney tries to fire up a crowd. Alternatively, we will have a year of hilarious debates as Herman Cain or Michele Bachmann attempts to outwit President Obama.

The Republican strategy will not change, but the President need not fear. We now know that the opposition has little to offer, and he has even less to gain by appeasing them. There is nothing Republicans can do, in this election cycle, to be taken seriously by moderate and liberal America. 

Finally, hopefully, the President can relax and say more of what he really thinks. Because now that the Republican presidential field have outed themselves, he need not worry about looking comparatively extreme, nutty, or disingenuous. Perhaps, as the opposition comes into focus, more citizens will realize how much worse things could be.