'One-Term Barack'

Via Andrew Sullivan: "Tongue in cheek, Larry Sabato and Alan Abramowitz mock pundits predicting that Obama will lose re-election":

Historically, incumbent presidents who have sought another term have won them by a two-to-one margin. Those aren’t impressive odds. How many of us would bet on a horse with minimal chances like that? Since 1900 only one incumbent president whose party captured the White House from the other party four years earlier (Jimmy Carter) has been beaten.

The other incumbent losers — Taft, Hoover, Ford, and the senior Bush — were from a party that had held the White House for two or more consecutive terms. But the key is that Carter and Obama are practically twins; both won the Nobel Peace Prize. Enough said. Moreover, the present moment is unprecedentedly perilous for an incumbent president. There’s really no comparison in the existence of the American Republic, save for about a dozen crises like the Civil War, economic panics, the Great Depression, world wars, and 9/11.

And just think, they actually pay those doom-predicting pundits good money, too. Nice work if you can get it. (Hit tip: Andrew Sullivan.)