Hunt for Red October

San Jose, CA – In common political talk, a Red State is Republican and a Blue State is a Democratic One. (Red State think Texas. Blue State think California) On November Fourth schedules will be scrambled, people will be in a rush, some will turn on the evening news for the first time since Inauguration Day, and everyone will find out if the pundits were right about this year’s midterm elections.

While the elections aren’t actually in October, it is the last month in which both major parties, (and a few minor ones) can try to gain support for candidates, both for the House of Representatives, (every seat) and the Senate, (a third of the seats.)

The Democrats hold the Senate, 55-45. The Republicans are looking for six seats. They would certainly love more, but six seats alone would be need to give them a majority in the Senate, and if they hold the house, where they are up by a bit more than six, they will control all of congress, leaving Barak Obama and the Democrats with a clear majority in only one branch of government, the presidency.

The Republican Outlook is hopeful. Barak Obama and friends have more than a little baggage carrying into the race. Not only do they have Benghazi, IRS, and the Affordable Care Act Website, (Obama Care) to worry about, they have the simple problem that they are the party in power.

When you are the president, you are everyone’s favorite, current sitting president. You are also everyone least favorite, current sitting president. Being at the front is always difficult. You get all the credit…for everything. I have read articles on the internet about bagels, and in the comments someone took the time to use some form of twisted logic to bring the president into the mix of cream cheese and raisin and cinnamon toppings, and make it all his fault. (Don't ask me how.)

The Democrats have held the reins, with a bit of struggling and input from the Republicans, for six years, and during that time not everything has gone well. Some of it was their fault, some of it wasn’t. But since they were at the wheel, it was all their fault in many people’s eyes.

In 1984 Tom Clancy published his first novel. The Hunt for Red October. A submarine, the Red October went missing. Just as the Republicans Red October went missing six years ago. In the novel, the submarine was never found again.

Andrew C. Abbott