Newsweek columnist not quite ready yet to face reality

In fact, it’s possible the national-security issue, typically a source of GOP strength against Democrats, could become an electoral winner for Obama come November, especially with the latest internecine row among Republicans over Liz Cheney’s virulent attack on Justice Department lawyers who have defended terror suspects. If the president can muster a tough sanctions package against Iran (said to be in the works), restart Mideast peace talks (the Palestinian Liberation Organization voted over the weekend to resume indirect talks with Israelis), and announce a new START agreement with Russia in the spring, the Republicans may find themselves both neutered on national security and negated on the economy…

The Democrats will lose some seats, no doubt, but it’s another question whether the election is really going to be as big a catastrophe as everyone seems to think. Some longtime political observers such as Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute suggest that, in the vacuum of Republican ideas, the Dems have a great opportunity to triangulate their way back to control of the center. For example, GOP Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin has put forward a bold and detailed plan to cut the deficit by reining in Medicare and Social Security; despite their deficit-cutting rhetoric, very few of his fellow Republicans have dared to endorse it. “My guess is that the Democrats are going to be just smart enough to take parts of Ryan’s plan and put it up for a vote, forcing the Republicans out into the open,” he says. In addition, Obama and the Democrats have a chance to put the Republicans “in a box” by pointing out that they have voted both against a jobs bill and a deficit commission.