"Why Obama will never be elected president"

November 7th was the 7th anniversary of the 2008 election of Barack Obama as president of the United States.    A blogger on Daily Kos compiled some quotes from pundits who were so wrong in their certitude that he could never be elected.

It's noteworthy that among them is the notorious neo-con editor of the Weekly Standard, William Kristol -- best known in my circles as the one who is always wrong about any prediction he makes.   I well remember that he was the first to champion Sarah Palin as a rising star in the Republican party, long before John McCain's staff picked her as VP without much vetting.    And we all know how well that turned out.

Here are some of the famous names who "knew" that that Obama kid had no chance.
   Oct. 27, 2006: "[Obama] should run in '08.  He will lose . . . .  For him to win in '08 would require a "miracle." -- Charles Krauthammer.
    Dec. 17, 2006: "Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single Democratic primary. I'll predict that right now." -- William Kristol
    Dec. 22, 2006: "Obama's shot at the top will be short lived.... Hillary Inc. will grind up and spit out any Democratic challenger that gets in its way." -- Joe Scarborough
    Mar. 19, 2007: "The right knows Obama is unelectable except perhaps against Attila the Hun." -- Mark Penn
    Sep. 24, 2007: "Sen. Obama cannot possibly believe, and doesn't even act as if he believes, that he can be elected president of the United States next year." -- Christopher Hitchens
   Jan. 26, 2008: "The 'could we beat Obama?' conversation is purely academic. It's over. The Clintons have defeated him already, because he is leaving South Carolina as 'the black candidate.' He won't win another state." -- Michael Graham, National Review."
   May 7, 2008: "[Obama] has shown he cannot get the votes Democrats need to win -- blue-collar, working class people. He can get effete snobs, he can get wealthy academics, he can get the young, and he can get the black vote, but Democrats do not win with that.... He will lose big." -- Rush Limbaugh 

And, as we well remember, even on election night 2012 when Fox News called the election for Obama, Karl Rove -- on air, and quite embarrassingly -- refused to believe that Romney had lost, until Megyn Kelly walked the TV cameras down the hall to get their own analysts to confirm it.

The conservatives have just never accepted Barack Obama as a legitimate president.   But they were wrong in 2008 and they've been wrong ever since. 

Ralph