A productive four years ahead

On "Day One," the day that Mitt wanted so badly, his party threw him under the GOP bus as it left the curb and headed toward 2016.

"It's clear that with our losses in the Presidential race and in key Senate races," Sen. John Cornyn told The Washington Post, "we have a period of reflection and recalibration ahead for the Republican Party. While some will want to blame one wing of the party over the other, the reality is candidates from all corners of our GOP lost tonight. Clearly we have work to do in the weeks and months ahead."

By "wing," Cornyn meant the two wings of the Republican Party: the GOP (which I call "the pragmatists") and the tea party ("the Limbaugh Republicans"). Mitt's campaign, and his defeat, made it clear that in President Obama's second term, there will be three political parties: the Democrats, the GOP, and the tea party.

Now here is Sen. Mitch McConnell, telling the Post that Obama "must move to the center, where Republicans would 'be there to meet him halfway. That begins by proposing a way for both parties to work together in avoiding the fiscal cliff without harming a weak but fragile economy, and then when that is behind us work with us to reform the tax code and our broken entitlement system.'"

McConnell said "Republicans" would meet Obama halfway, but that was code for "GOP pragmatists." He knows the tea partiers won't move to the center or meet ANYBODY halfway, particularly the socialist Obama.

McConnell on Day One is already kicking into play a strategy I've been fiddling with for several days. The GOP, the pragmatists, looking ahead to 2016, know they have some promising young candidates to send out against Hillary. And they need to distance themselves from all those tea partiers who are unelectable or embarrassing or both, and in general a terrible drag on things.

And so the GOP consciously decides to help Obama succeed in his second term, in the process grinding the tea party into dust. The nation profits greatly thereby. Then in 2015-16, the GOP claims credit for everything. Everybody's happy, except maybe Hillary, but she can take care of herself. It's happening so fast. Looking forward, I see progress . . .