Daniel Gross is here essentially making a political argument about the economic realities of government ownership of private corporations. Those inclined to accept the facts as he presents them will sagely nod their heads in agreement. They may dispute the wisdom of this ownership, but they won't argue about the whys and wherefors of how this came to be. But there is a small universe composed of conservative Republicans, who will not be convinced at all of what he says, since they are in thrall of an apocalyptic worldview about the Obama administration.

Last Friday, James Carville and Stan Greenberg of Democracy Corps released a study they had done about the conservative voters mindset. They discovered a huge gap between what conservative Republicans think and what conservative independent voters think about the actions and motivations of the Obama administration. While independent conservative voters may express alarm about deficits and government control of corporations and the like, they very much want the Obama administration to succeed. Not so conservative Republicans, who view the Obama administration in a sinister light and are convinced that it is plotting and carrying out a strategy to wreck the American nation in order to bring about a socialist takeover. They are convinced that what happened with GM, Chrysler, Citi and BoA is the foot in the door to an overall scheme to destroy American freedom.

If Daniel Gross thinks he may engage in a reasonable argument about this, he is in for a surprise when conservative Republican heads explode in rage.

The interesting thing about this study is how this will most likely play out in the next Presidential election. While independent conservatives (and these are mostly fiscal conservatives) express alarm over the federal deficit (and this includes me), they will probably put Obama back into office in 2012, because the Republican alternative will offer nothing. Indeed, I also want him to succeed, but the road to any kind of economic recovery is fraught with potential disaster, and if our economy really does tank (and that remains a distinct possibility), then Obama will tank along with it.

What is really scary is the prospect of another Republican in office, based on the current mindset of that party (total negativity with complete absence of constructive alternatives), which, for all intents and purposes, is extremely anti-middle class, and doesn't give a damn about the real welfare of our country, but simply wants to be back in power. All the screaming from the Right about descending into socialism is pretty much lost on mainstream Middle America. Most are just trying to cope with a bad economy, unemployment, and hanging on to their homes at this juncture. The so-called “revolution” is mostly a marketing ploy used by the extreme right radio talking heads to exploit their very captive audience and the very lucrative market they represent.

As for the huge U.S. deficit, most quickly forget who got us into a bogus $trillion war, and at the same time sent millions of American manufacturing jobs off shore, which greatly reduced U.S. revenues while escalating expenditures to chase WMD that never even existed. How short memories can be when the "loyal opposition" wants to make a polarizing political point.

If the economy is still faltering in 2012, I can guarantee you Obama won't be reelected. It's possible he wouldn't even get the Democrat (yes, Democrat) nomination. Hillary is licking her chops right now.

Wall Street--Is it still possible to get a CDS on your guarantee? (I won't reveal which way I'm hedging.)