Après moi, le déluge

By Richard K. Barry

President Obama in New Hampshire on Morning Joe

I know we’re all focused on the election next week, but President Obama said yesterday what a lot of us have been thinking for a while, which is that if he wins re-election the Republican Party will have to overcome an internal war.

The president said this in a Morning Joe interview:

The question’s going to be, how do Republicans react post-election? Because there’s going to be a war going on inside that party. It just hasn’t broken up. It’s been unified in opposition to me.

At the same time, the president expressed his belief that if he is elected he could work with Republicans to get some things done. I hope he’s right, though I’m not optimistic.

But on the point of the GOP civil war should Obama win, it will be interesting. Will the hard right say that Romney was too much of a centrist who never believed the hardcore rhetoric he was spouting and demand the party become more radical? Or will the centrists be able to restore a degree of sanity?

My guess is that if Obama wins, it’s going to be the former, especially given the likely slight margin of victory. And God help us if he wins the electoral vote without the popular vote. I just don’t see the loudmouths in the Republican ranks being outflanked by the likes of Jon Huntsman and Jeb Bush.

Let’s get past next Tuesday and take it from there.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann’s Ghost.)