GOP has an uphill battle

Why? It is because persuasion does not work as well as bribes. Why do women and minorities vote for Dems? It is not because of superior argumentation, nor from impeccable logic and reason. Nor is it from superior moral authority. It comes from who will promise them the most, and who is the most credible in delivering.

Update:

A different take:

Pennsylvania tall order

Excerpts:

• Stimulus signs that dotted highways after a trillion-dollar federal spending spree became signs to mock when the economy failed to improve
• The data from a yearlong measure of his approval rating, conducted by Gallup in Pennsylvania, aren't promising: 45 percent approve of his performance, 48 percent disapprove.
• Obama needs Pennsylvania to win re-election. Yet his Electoral College calculus is complicated by his failure to poll well among Jacksonian voters
• Even the class-based populist attacks that Obama emphasizes in his political rhetoric, traditionally thought to appeal to Jacksonian white voters, are falling on deaf ears this time around.
• For Obama to win here, his coalition will need to maximize the minority vote, keep single women and the youth vote firmly in his corner, eke out a win with gentry whites, split the independent vote and hold down the losses among Jacksonian whites.

Comment:  But that is still close to 50%, and that is all he needs for re election.

More here:  GOP Finally Discovers Obama's Achilles Heel: Just Let Him Do What He Does... And Encourage It!

Comment:  But giving him everything he wants just makes his followers happy.  Does making them happy make them less likely to vote for Obama?

The above discussion assumes that people give a damn about anything other than their own concerns.  If Obama can keep them happy enough for long enough, he will win.

Update:

A perfect case in point:

Obama's 2013 Budget: A Monument To Irresponsibility

Excerpts:

• What do you call a budget that boosts spending $227 billion, adds $329 billion to an already huge deficit, and does nothing to fix the entitlement crisis? If you're President Obama, it's called "fiscal responsibility."
• Obama ignored the warnings of every serious budget expert — including his own bipartisan debt commission — that without meaningful entitlement reforms the nation's fiscal crisis will never be resolved. 
• Obama also says his budget plan will "strengthen our economy and boost job creation," but it contains a $1.5 trillion tax hike on businesses and investors most likely to actually grow the economy and create those jobs.

Comment:

But Democrats believe that spending more will boost the economy.  About the deficits?  Just raise taxes.  The point is that each side believes what it believes and all talk just goes past each other.  Democrats don't care if the economy suffers, as long as their own interests are served.  They believe that the economy is better if their own case is better, what happens to businesses is of no concern to them as long as the government checks keep coming.  If you argue against raising taxes, you are only for the rich.  So, the assumption is that everybody is only for themselves, so it must be okay to keep being excessively selfish.  A moral argument falls on deaf ears.

Update:

One last comment.  If politics is completely amoral, as I think that it is, then the sales pitch that may have a chance to work must also be amoral.  Therefore, it comes down to this:  is the government the best insurer of your personal financial well-being, or is it the private sector?  You have to make this choice this time, because the government is set to expand significantly in the years ahead if Obama is re-elected.  A defeat for Obama may stall the march towards greater government involvement in the economy for now, at least.