Killing OBL won't get Obama re-elected

Despite the best efforts of a largely partisan media, the bounce President Obama got from the killing of Osama bin Laden isn't going to last. Even as he takes his victory lap for the Obama killing, the polls rate public confidence in the president's handling of the overwhelming issue of the hour- the economy- lower than at any previous time in his presidency.

While the odds still (barely) favor his re-election next year, Barack Obama remains eminently beatable- provided the Republicans avoid an ideological orgy and stop making it so easy for the Democrats (of all people!) to portray the GOP as a party of extremists.

To achieve this, Republicans will have to come up with solutions, not merely criticisms. One of those solutions will have to be how to replace the increasingly rare and decreasingly adequate employer-provided health insurance which has generally provided adequate access to health care for most Americans, especially in catastrophic emergencies,  with an adequate and realistic substitute. And Republicans will have to come to grips with the fact that, in the modern world, there are a much larger number of things than there were in 1789 which only the government (cash-strapped though it may be) can accomplish for Americans that Americans simply cannot realistically accomplish for themselves.

HT: Real Clear Politics