◼ link - Jennifer Rubin/Washington Post
...is there anyone who thinks Obama, should he get a second term, wouldn’t run wild with policies and positions that the majority of the electorate oppose? Otherwise, he’d roll them out now, of course.
It’s remarkable, actually, that Obama could be any more flexible with Russia after the election than he’s already been under the “reset” that is indistinguishable from appeasement. He praised the rigged Russian elections, helped get Russia into the World Trade Organization, has tried to slow down human rights legislation aimed at Russian perpetrators and yanked missile defense sites out of Eastern Europe. One can only imagine how much worse things would get if he no longer had to worry about public opinion and all those troublesome human rights groups nagging him.
The same is, of course, true on everything from gay marriage to Israel policy to taxes. Obama took off the mask of moderation in an effort to woo back his base, but in doing so he gave the rest of the electorate real reason to worry about a second term. And conservatives shouldn’t bank on Republicans in Congress to stand up to a reelected president (especially if they lose seats in the House and fail to get the Senate). Elections are taken as mandates by elected officials and the media (even if the message is less clear than the winner would have us believe).
In sum, the election is not simply a referendum on President Obama’s actions to date; it’s essentially a blank check for the president’s second term.
