Why Obama will likely win a second term

Why......why can't the GOP run a viable, sane, non-fundamentalist-nutcase, candidate? We already know that Gary Johnson won't get the nod....and Ron Paul has some issues, notably his fundamentalist nutcase-itis...but looking over the rest of the dismal cast, there's nothing for anyone who wants reason, ration and above all....liberty, to choose from.

My unrequested, layman's prediction is that an unelectable candidate will receive the nomination, and we'll be saddled with four more years of Obama. Why am I so pessimistic? Because the far-right seems unalterably adulated towards faux-populist, divisive mental lightweights such as Palin, Bachmann and Gingrich. [Yes, I concede that Gingrich is incredibly intelligent, but he uses his academic powers for evil instead of good]

I'm pretty torn on other almost-maybe-not-anymore candidates; Huckabee seems to me to be one of the most honest, candid and likable politicians of our current era. I simply cannot however, support someone who does not espouse liberty for all American citizens, and one who puts so much faith and respect into a pied piper of perfidy like David Barton. So I remain ever the pessimist and cynic....but true to my conscience.

I have to relay a nifty compilation of Michelle Bachmann's greatest hits, just to add some context for my perplexed outlook.

Sometime this month, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is expected to travel to Waterloo, Iowa to officially announce her presidential candidacy. Her odds, while firmly in Hail Mary territory, are still better than you might think: With Republicans less than thrilled with the primary field, Bachmann stands at least a fighter's chance in socially conservative states like Iowa and South Carolina.

Now in just her third term in Congress, Bachmann, the leader of the House tea party caucus, has earned a reputation as one of the lower chamber's leading bomb-throwers, lobbing overheated rhetoric at Democrats and needling establishment Republicans. Her Minnesota colleague, Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison once accused her of "psycho talk"; in an interview with Politico, a Pawlenty aide was just as blunt: "She's a real pain in the ass." Former state senator Dean Johnson, who was the Republican minority leader during Bachmann's stint in St. Paul, has said, "I don't think I ever served with anybody who I mistrusted more, from either side of the aisle."

Ouch. Bachmann also has a tendency to stretch the truth, or simply sidestep it altogether. Bill Adair, editor of PolitiFact, recently told Minnesota Public Radio that he has never researched a Bachmann quote and found it to be true (the only major politician for which that's the case).

Here's an incomplete guide to Bachmann's greatest hits:

The timeline of her wild-ass history of public statements is a must read.