On Fox News Channel’s coverage of the presidential election, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer seemed to handle Gov. Mitt Romney’s loss as well as anyone on the right could be expected to, particularly given the surprisingly wide margin.
Going forward, Krauthammer explained that President Barack Obama will not be as strong as he was in the early part of his first term, when his party held majorities in both chambers of Congress.
“I think the real story here is that Obama won, but he’s got no mandate,” Krauthammer declared. “He won by going very small, very negative, and we are left as a country exactly where we started, but a little bit worse off. The Republicans are in control of the House, probably a little bit stronger. They are not going to budge. There’s no way after holding out on Obama for two years they’re going to cave in, and Obama doesn’t have anywhere really to go. He governed very large in the first two years.”
Krauthammer cited Obamacare and the stimulus, but explained when he lost control of the House, those efforts to pursue “large” ideas ceased. But looking forward, there is not much for Obama to do, according to the Washington Post columnist.
“What will he do?” Krauthammer continued. “I think he will go back to who he is. People have said he should be a Clinton and compromise, have a second term. But he is not instinctively a moderate. I think he is a man of the left, and he will try to push his agenda through with what he thinks is a mandate. And I think we are going to be exactly where we were a year ago with the debt ceiling argument next year. And the problem is the country will slide right through a second term because I don’t see give on either side, particularly when the president, with a very weak mandate for a second term.”
Krauthammer was easy with his critique of the losing candidate Mitt Romney, explaining that Romney did as well as he could. But he said the future is not as dim for the GOP as it might seem on the heels of this electoral loss.
“Romney was the only one remotely presidential, and he was the logical candidate,” Krauthammer said. “But think of those who didn’t run. There’s of course, Paul Ryan who I think will be a leader in the party. You have a whole rising young generation — Kelly Ayotte, you’ve got Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley, Ted Cruz, the new senator from Texas, Marco Rubio, this whole generation who a just a year or two short in their careers from running this time are all going to be in the fray next time. And I think they are the future. And all the soul-searching about what ideology we are going to pursue is going to come from them. And I think it will be a fairly Reaganite and conservative one. I think the future of the party is quite bright.”