An undeserved victory in the US of A

And so, as expected, and predicted almost a year ago, Nancy is out of a job and the Democrats clang to the Senate (but barely and uselessly as filibuster will be fine and dandy).

And yet I am perturbed because the Republicans got understandably a victory but certainly a woefully undeserved one.  It is amazing for me, seen from here, that the GOP managed to make Obama the guilty party of a crisis that he inherited in full from a GOP administration.  I personally like Obama better today than I used to like him when he was elected: I think he got a real raw deal and if he certainly made mistakes and confused priorities it remains that the inheritance of George Bush was a heavy one to handle and it could have been much worse.  Not to mention that the GOP made anything it could to sabotage Obama's attempts at improving things.

The only silver lining I could detect was that apparently the Tea Party did not do as well as it hoped to do.  And still it did much better than what it should have done.  This odd assortment coalition used by many bigots and nut cases to hide their agenda behind fiscal restraint is once again a reincarnation of dark US pulses that occasionally surface in US politics, from both ends of the political spectrum, from the right this time around.  The Tea Party will not be an asset for the GOP.  True, it helped the needed mobilization to carry the House but it also will be dragging the GOP to the right in a dangerous way for this one, giving Obama ways to manage a reelection a la Clinton without the advantages this one had then.  As the new GOP House will be forced to deliver with a Senate against and a solid ink veto pen in the hand of Obama, the Tea Party can quickly capsize the GOP pseudo long distance liner.  We will see, lots to watch over the next few months.

But that voter anger which gives loony results happens from the left also.  And I am not talking about Venezuela here, I am talking about France where I was during some of the worst strike moments of last month (being stranded in a train for three hours, for example).  In France we have a right wing president and we have a leftist hysterical opposition which I found quite close to the Tea Party in the way it presents its arguments.  There the Socialist party of France was very willing in letting the fringe left set the agenda, just as people who should have known better in the GOP let Sarah and the gang take front stage to make Obama a muslim non american communist.

In France the Socialist Party knows very well that there is no money to keep retirement at 60.  Not even at 62 through the rather modest Sarkozy proposal.  And yet they spoke  about "other " ways to fund retirement without making concrete or serious proposals that would not jeopardize the weak economical recovery.  In the end some in the Socialist camp cowardly and irresponsibly endorsed launching high school kids to protest in the streets even though these kids are the ones that need the most the postponement of retirement age if they want to avoid over-taxation through their life time.

The parallel exists with Tea party as this one campaigned on spending cuts without saying where the cuts could come, knowing full well that at least three quarters of the US budget cannot be touched.  In the end they also had their cowardly moments such as letting muslim rumors on Obama persist.

But I may be digressing.  Even though I am not pleased as a more right wing GOP returns to the House with probably a hidden social agenda I also must admit that I am not upset at Pelosi's career being over.  Although I was very pleased when a woman became speaker I doubted her quite fast as she was too keen to follow trade unions opposition to FTA with Colombia.  Some signs are very telling of future developments.  As a result Colombia is starting to show signs of distancing from the US as Chavez is becoming less of a threat.  If this in a way is good for Latin America, it is yet another step in the loss of US leadership in the hemisphere.  As I suspected then, Pelosi's pettiness in the end has done significant damage to the US position.  The lack of vision in Pelosi shown then certainly explain some of her mistakes at home and her major loss yesterday.  I personally think she did major disservice to her president who will carry the burden of her own lackings as she will drift into oblivion in the Marin County mists.

And thus  the conclusion of the paradox of my title: the GOP gets an undeserved victory but Pelosi gets a deserved beating and Obama unfortunately pays the price.  Now it is up to him alone not to be a one term president.  Good luck with that!