Three Up; Three Down

THREE UP

It was a rather good week for one Barack Obama. Among his first duties as president-elect was to begin the hard work of driving down expectations, warning the thousands gathered in Chicago’s Grant Park, “We may not get there in one year or even in one term.” So where is “there”? Gee, does it really matter?
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On a night of partisan carnage, Bob Goodlatte emerged with nary a nick. The eight-term incumbent congressman cruised past Sam Rasoul in the 6th District. Republicans take notice: Goodlatte sticks to his conservative guns, and whips every Democrat who dares oppose him. Watch and learn, GOP.
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Speaking of the GOP, the events Tuesday here in the central Valley ought to have been unsettling. Driven by the Democrats’ Paint the Valley Blue effort, Obama carried Staunton and nearly gained Waynesboro. Augusta County remained a deep shade of red, but fissures appeared to form elsewhere in a longtime GOP stronghold.

THREE DOWN

Look out, Alaskans! That object descending from the sky amid the flutter of Saks Fifth Avenue price tags is your governor making an abrupt return to Earth. Sen. John McCain’s gang disclosed anonymously that Sarah Palin couldn’t find Africa with both hands, threw tantrums that sent staff into tears and refused to do prep for her disastrous interview with Katie Couric. Guess those “I’m Voting for the Chick” signs won’t be good for 2012 after all.
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Of course, the rush to diss Sarah bears a particularly pungent odor coming from the McCain staff, fresh off the worst-run Republican campaign since Bob Dole’s in 1996. Did McCain’s moose-hunting sidekick put a gun to somebody’s head, or did McCain put her on the ticket all by himself? So whom to blame if she fouled things? Yes, that would be you, Sen. McCain.
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Republicans have become the Cincinnati Bengals of politics, racking up one losing season after another. On the heels of a shellacking in 2006, the GOP takes another pounding in ’08. The elephant in the roomful of elephants is diluted conservatism. That moderate presidential candidate sure fared well.