It's Been Said

...Obama's the one they love to hate, but Romney's the one they hate to love.

The American Conservative:

A few times, Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan have made effective arguments about Obama over-promising and under-delivering. This has proved true with the economy, but it is also playing out in the Middle East. As someone who owes his political success to speechmaking, Obama has exaggerated the extent to which his oratory can solve the problems of that troubled region or even compensate for his own drone strikes.

But it is difficult to make this case when Romney’s alternative is simply chest-beating. If Obama speechifies, emotes and “apologizes,” Romney struts, baits liberals and says to hell with apologies—all while drawing fire away from his opponent.

Conventional wisdom now has it that political campaigns are all style and no substance, which may be why Obama's win in 2008 scared the fuck outa the right (including btw the Blue Dogs etc), and made it mandatory to block everything no matter what.  The thing Entrenched Interests in positions of power fear most is the prospect of losing their power.  They feel little compulsion to do anything of consequence moving us toward that "more perfect union" thing because they've come to believe their own sales pitch - and more specifically, they cling to the only little piece of the pitch that matters to them and their very ambitious staffers and campaign consultants; ie: "you can't do anything if you lose the election".  So it naturally boils down to "doing whatever's necessary to get yourself re-elected and we'll try to figure out something after November".  But guess what?  The election never ends.  The campaign is a permanent fixture.  You may have noticed this.

But in 2008, Obama represented a serious threat to that system.  And it's worse now because if he wins this time, he can put himself up as the most feared kind of Chief Exec - a guy with some decent things in place from his first term, plus a little momentum, not much really to lose and, as the economy stirs itself, nowhere to go but up in his second term.

So watch for the shit-shovelers to pile it on.