After explaining why Obama has been a poor President, and why it is the Republican's election to lose, former Bush speechwriter and political commentator Peggy Noonan had this to say.
Obama Is Likely to Lose - WSJ.com
You would think Democratic professionals, who read the same numbers Republicans do and pick up similar trends, would be hanging their heads in despair.
They are not. They have hope. Their hope is that Republicans in the early caucus and primary states will go crazy.
They hope the GOP will nominate for the presidency someone strange, extreme or barely qualified. They hope that in a mood of antic cultural pique, or in a great acting out of disdain for elites, or to annoy the mainstream media, Republican voters will raise high candidates who are unacceptable to everyone else. Everyone else of course being the great and vital center, which hires and fires presidents. The Democrats' hope is that centrists will look at the Republican nominee and, holding their nose, choose the devil they know. Especially if the one they don't know seems to have little horns under his hair.
Republicans voting in recent presidential primaries have tended to pick the candidates who are viewed as the moderate in the raceBob Dole in 1996, George W. Bush in 2000, John McCain in 2008. But in truth, there are some pretty antic candidates out there this year.
The great question of the coming year is not, "Will Obama reignite his base?" or, "Will the Democrats outraise and outspend the GOP?" It is: Will the GOP be serious? Will Republicans be equal to their history, their tradition and the moment? If they areif they recruit and support candidates who can speak to the entire country, who have serious experience and accomplishments, who are grounded and credible, then they will win centrist support. And with it they will likely win the thing without which they cannot achieve the big changes they seek, and that is the presidency.
Obama Is Likely to Lose - WSJ.com