How Should A German See Tuesday's Election

By Wednesday night of last week....the Channel One & Two crowd needed to sit down and explain to the German public how President Obama and the Democrats lost.  They didn't necessarily do this when the British government fell in the recent election (to those evil Tories), and they didn't do it when current French crowd took over.  In fact, it's pretty hard to remember when they had to go and spend an hour or two explaining things.

You can imagine the chat...mostly bringing out pro-Obama folks and letting them explain on German public TV how the terrible thing occurred, and how racism is all part of this terrible business.  Germans tend to consume bits and pieces of this type of program because they have an enormous amount of trust in Channel One & Two.

I sat and pondered over and finally decided to dish out the ten things that Germans ought to take out of Tuesday's election.  Oh, and let me say this....I have no connection to Channel One or Two....so you can regard me as a threat to sanity, if you wish.  Read far and wide....you might find that most of what I suggest is true, and that Channel One and Two ought to tell more of the story.

First, this was a non-Presidential election.  It involved senators (one/third of the total group), representatives (all of them), governors, and various state and local offices.  You can imagine up a national agenda here....but frankly, the President wasn't on the vote-list.

Second.  Unemployment and the sluggish economy drove the vast portion of this election.  If you wanted to inject racism into the vote....it'd be mostly at the bottom of one hundred reasons to vote like folks did.

Three.  A small number of Republican senators didn't get the nod to run for their party.  That might shock a German.  But the truth of the matter is that a number of folks had spent a long time in DC....in their jobs....and folks thought that they were more of the problem, than the solution.  It's a unusual feature of government representation.....either you are part of the solution...or you helped to cause the problem.

Four.  The Tea Party movement?  Yeah, it played a role in various states.  Who makes up the movement?  It's mostly disenchanted independent and Republican voters....and yes, thirteen percent of the Tea Party movement is Democrat.  If that shocks you....maybe you ask if they are disenchanted with things going on with their own party, and the answer is yes.  Is the Tea Party movement racist?  It's about as racist as the CDU party in Germany....so that might make you ask more questions at this point.  Disenchantment is what started the Tea Party movement, and it will continue until folks are happier.

Five.  For the Germans who want to jump up for the idea of American universal health care....look around and note that well over sixty percent of Americans today question the bill that was passed and think that it needs to be "fixed".  How many happy Democratic senators and representatives bragged about their work on the bill?  Very few.  You would think that folks would want to brag.   Go and pick any of the candidates literature and note that less than ten percent bragged about their participation in the health care vote.  It's kinda like engineering a new car and then not wanting to talk about how sloppy the work is or how bad the car is on the road.

Six.  Lots of people came out in California to vote on the marijuana initiative.  Yep....along with all the various Democrats and Republicans....they had a chance to legalize it.  The vast number of votes in the state for various Democratic candidates went their direction.  That was one of the few states with significant victories.  Funny thing....most folks voted against the marijuana ballot.  Even a fair number of Democrats voted against it.

Seven.  A number of German journalists would like to say these voters in the Tuesday election....were "stupid".  It's a pretty neat explanation.... worthy of a greatly educated individual to render.  Wouldn't the same logic work for the 2008 Presidential election as well....that "stupid" voters rendered their vote in that election as well?  Where exactly is the brilliance?  The concept of only smart voters vote Democrat sounds pretty good....after five or six German beers.  If you believe in this concept....I'd just suggest you start on the beers early, and agree that Frankfurt's soccer team is the best in Germany as well.

Eight.  The positive spin of the President's speech ability has probably has probably maxed out.  Most folks would readily agree that only three or four speeches out of the past twelve months might have been worth listening to....and the rest are mostly two-star moments better left forgotten.  Speeches don't make a great leader, and in this election....they were simply another chapter to the disenchantment business.

Nine.  The vast number of German economic experts have spoken out over the past eighteen months....and pretty much blasted the American strategy of recovery.  Please note....the American plan had no pieces from the Republican party.....it was built strictly from the White House team.  When German economic experts say things like this....you might want to think about why folks vote the way they do.

Ten.  Everyone gets the continual dose from the German news folks that all of this mess came strictly from 2000 to 2008.  It can work this way....because these were the Bush years.  It's a neat strategy to lay out things in front of naive folks....and just hope they don't read up on the banks and the mortgage business.  My advice...read up.  You might be surprised.  The start of this entire business goes back to the Carter years, and grows a bit through each administration.  Yes, Reagan and his Democratic players helped in the 1980s.  Yes, Clinton and his Republican house associates helped in the 1990s.  Yes, Bush and the entire house and senate helped from 2000 to 2008.  This has been a avalanche in the making for almost thirty years.  So when the news analyst on Channel One suggests Bush did it....ask them how the housing act business started during the Carter years and watch this funny expression on his face.  He didn't get those facts from the Spiegel article he was reading....to get smart over this entire mess.  And it shows.

So, at the end of the day....here is the picture.  One part of the US government shifted.  The House of Representatives will be run by the Republicans.  The Senate still has a majority of Democrats, with two independents.  And the Presidency is still intact.  I realize the Channel One folks indicated that everything is screwed up now....and it can only be if you think the Senate and the Presidency are screwed up as well.  Naturally, that's not the script that the Channel One guy wants to read.

2011 has to be a year of change and hope for Americans.  If the economy doesn't improve....disenchantment will continue on.  If the government size isn't cut or taxes lessened....then 2012's election will be a major problem for the President to explain.  My analysis?  Well...two Channel One guys are already sitting at their desks each evening and wondering how they might explain how President Obama lost the November 2012 re-election, and make the evil Republicans look even more evil.  Oh, and the voters in 2012?  They were "stupid".  Yep, that will work.