Early this year (see Jan. 11 post, “A Fearless Forecast”)
the Geezer went out on the proverbial election forecasting limb. The limb
remains intact, but it’s a little shaky.
I said after Mitt Romney’s early primary win in New Hampshire he would
be the Republican candidate for president. Right.
I said President Barack Obama would win a close election.
Right, but it wasn’t as close as I thought it would be.
I said Democrats would hold a majority in the Senate and
fail to win enough seats to wrest House control from the Republicans. Right.
Because Libertarian Ron Paul finished second in New Hampshire with a hefty 22.8
percent of the Republican vote, I predicted he would run a strong race as a third party
candidate. I said the Libertarian presence would take enough votes away from Governor
Romney to reelect President Obama. Wrong.
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson picked up the
Libertarian banner when Paul declined to run. Although Johnson became the first
Libertarian to get more than a million votes in a presidential election, they
were fairly well spread out across the country and did not hand President Obama
any states. Florida,
where Libertarian views are strong in a few counties, may prove the exception
when all votes are counted there. However, Florida
became a nonfactor when President Obama clearly won a return to office well
before Sunshine State votes mattered.
I made a major miscalculation thinking the election would be
closer. I erred in assuming that Mr. Obama’s 2008 victory quite possibly was a
one-time event motivated by strong demands for change from large segments of the
public disenchanted with President George W. Bush and his policies. Results in
2012 show 2008 was no fluke. They proved that the white male establishment no
longer will be dominant in American politics.
The 2008 election signaled a trend; it was not an outlier in
the world of political statistics.
(I also said in January, “We will be in for another four
years of frustrating stalemate in Washington.”
That remains a popular viewpoint following this week’s election. However, I’ve
come to believe we self-appointed seers are dead wrong about that. A post on
the topic will be coming soon.)
