You could almost feel the big, red wave coming. In the midterms Democrats, confronted by a radical-right Republicanism intent on disparaging their leadership, demeaning their accomplishments, and dismissing their approach to governing, had no answers. Their response ranged from assuming a defensive crouch to shriveling up into the fetal position.As a party, the Democrats seemed tired, dispirited and listless. It was obvious they, like the country, were disillusioned with Barack Obama, whose shortcomings as a manager and politician had, by the sixth year of his presidency, overwhelmed his more intangible strengths in the area of vision and inspiration.Admittedly, the president was battered post-2012 by events beyond his immediate control: ISIS, Ebola, Russian aggression, the IRS and VA mini-scandals. Nevertheless, his reactions lacked the verve and clarity of the early years, and Democrats, who had tied their party fortunes to a cult of the Obama personality, were dragged down with him.Rather than defending their ground and playing the hand they were dealt, Democrats as a whole entered the lists in 2014 determined to run Republican-lite campaigns and deny their Obama connection; it made their situation untenable. By deserting their president in his hour of need, the party’s midterm candidates looked cowardly, duplicitous, and unappreciative; they were with him in the good times, had never heard of him in the bad times. Barack who? Naturally, the public, not being stupid, saw through the charade and voted for the real anti-Obama candidates, not the ersatz alternative.Read More.Source: Populisr/Wayne O'Leary