He was seriously hoping for a 1980 Reagan-style sweep? That's hilarious. Of course it's not going to happen.
In a column at the Weekly Standard website, former New York Times columnist Bill Kristol opines that “assuming that presidential field remains as it is” for the GOP, “2012 won’t be a repeat of 1980″. He is referring to the election of Ronald Reagan after Jimmy Carter’s single term in the White House.
The column itself is a semi-rhapsodic invocation of what is apparently to Kristol a sacred date, “November 4, 1980, the instant when we knew Ronald Reagan, the man who gave the speech in the lost cause of 1964, leader of the movement since 1966, derided by liberal elites and despised by the Republican establishment, the moment when we knew—he’d won, we’d won, the impossible dream was possible, the desperate gamble of modern conservatism might pay off, conservatism had a chance, America had a chance”.
Once again, too many serious people are operating under the assumption that this president is a failure when, in fact, his approval rating would be 15 points higher were it not for 9.0 percent unemployment. And by this time next year, any remaining economic stress is going to be mostly blamed on Republican obstruction.
Either way, 2012 is more likely to be 1984 with President Obama on the Reagan side of the metaphor.