The six-year itch

A president’s first term often is one for the voters. The second one often is for the president’s ego.

This is not unique to Barack Obama. It has happened to many presidents (think of George W. Bush and his largely-ignored plan to reform Social Security), and it is why opposition parties almost always gain seats in a president’s second midterm cycle.

Yet, in Obama, you have a president who chose to run his second-term campaign almost devoid of an agenda. His campaign focused almost entirely on character assassination, portraying Mitt Romney as a heartless corporate raider who didn’t care about average Americans.

Obama chose to say almost nothing about what he would do in a second term and, interestingly, chose not to brag about anything he’d done in his first term.

You get the mandates you ask for in elections. And Obama’s only mandate is that he is not Mitt Romney.

This brings Obama well into his second term with no equity on issues.