If Obama Wins

[cthulu2016]

If Obama wins it will play out in amusing fashion in the GOP.

First, Obama winning is, to them, an unthinkable result... an impossible result. The kind of result that causes soul-searching. It will be a "who lost China?" kind of moment for them.

If Newt were the nominee then losing would marginalize the base. It would be like Goldwater in 1964 or McGovern in 1972.

But if Obama beats Romney then we will have a situation where a man who the base is convinced is a left-leaning moderate loses because he has adopted the extremist stance of the base. The party has moved so far right that RINO Romney actually has the most extreme positions of any pre-2010 Republican presidential candidate since at least Goldwater.

So the public rejects the base by proxy and the base sincerely believes the public has rejected moderation.

"Oh noes... if only we had run Hitler!"

The following four years would see the Republican party trying to coalese around overt theocrats, Birchers and survivalists. The Moral Majority and Paulista wings will both be emboldened. The republican establishment demonized.

[Turbineguy]

1. Good point

It might actually be better to let the repubs win, destroy the country and wait for them to say, "gee, I guess we had it wrong!". Expect the US to spend a fortune protecting the President from RW domestic terrorists.

[Ship of Fools]

2. sounds reasonable to me ...

My version: When the outcome is announced, things
may get a little dicey. The bigots will think it's the end of civilization
as we know it, or OWS will grow exponentially! If it is Romney, I'll
be going to bed, so wake me when the nightmare is over. :smile:

[ErikJ]

3. Depends on the economy

If the economy is better then it will mellow out the Republicans. If it gets worse it will polarize the GOP further -and they may even win if the economy dives before Nov.

[NAO]

4. If Obama wins their will be riots, violence, and zillions of demands for recounts

If Obama wins (which they won't EVER believe really happened) I don't think the investigations of voter fraud will be done by the time Obama leaves office in 2017.

[trof]

5. "IF"?

IMHO, it's Obama's to lose, no matter who the repug nominee is.

[cthulu2016]

7. That's irrelevant to the question

Why would anyone say "when" intead of "if" when looking at a hypothetical?

I think the Giants will win the superbowl.

If I said "When Eli Manning wins the superbowl tomorrow he will have won two superbowls" I would be senselessly conflating a prediction and a statement about a hypothetical.

Granted, if I wanted to make a public demonstration, wanted to show I was a super-fan of the sort who values emotion over reason, then I would say "when." But it would undercut the value of whatever else I was saying.

[joshcryer]

6. Rec for crazy speculation. :)