Counting Noses

As the campaign shapes up, it's obvious that Obama's strategy is to divide and conquer. He's picking as many aggrieved sub-groups as he can to pander to their fears and hostilities in return for votes. If he can find enough people who think they're being oppressed by rich white guys, he believes he can win.

So let's see how many sub-groups he's pandered to so far:

Blacks. It's stunning to me when I hear that blacks support Obama 95 or 96 percent. There's no more telling statistic possible to prove that black folks wouldn't care if he was Hitler or Stalin from a policy perspective, they'll still support him because he's black.

Hispanics. He pushes hard on the amnesty issue, holding out hope that he can add 20 million voters to keep him in office by swearing them in as citizens in time for the election. Don't think the Republicans are in a mood to play along with that strategy.

Single women, both working and on welfare. He wants to scare them by suggesting that Republicans will take away their benefits or somehow outlaw contraceptives. The feminist core he can take for granted, as their number one issue is abortion rights. Their fear that Republicans might restrict access to abortion is much more realistic than the silly made-up contraception theme.

Union members. There's an interesting split here that Obama's finding a bit difficult to reconcile. Obama's tax and regulatory policies are driving union jobs offshore, and union members don't like that. His push to open borders and amnesty for illegal immigrants also concerns the union rank-and-file, because they logically conclude that those immigrants are going to compete for their high paying unionized jobs.

Bureaucrats. The exploding population of government bureaucrats at all levels has become a significant voting block all by itself. They know that Obama and the Big-Government Democrats are their best hope for maintaining their cushy government jobs with their overly generous health and pension benefits. They're going to be the most active advocates for Obama, because Republicans represent the biggest threat to their gravy train.

Trial Lawyers. Obama represents a promise of business as usual in Tort Law. So the class of lawyers who rely on the existing system to make millions by suing companies and physicians know that keeping Obama in office is their best chance to keep the cash flowing.

Government Contractors and Favored Businesses. Companies that provide goods and services to the Federal Government have a vested interest in keeping the big spenders in office. Especially those corporate guys who have invested big bucks in campaign contributions to Obama, (Solyndra, for one) who have been rewarded many times over in government largesse for those investments.

Homosexuals. Although there's a somewhat significant population of gay Republicans, most of those seeking special recognition such as Gay Marriage are aligned with Obama against the Religious Right.

Groups Obama is demonizing have been given the message in no uncertain terms that he's not interested in protecting their interests.

Middle-to-Upper Class White Men, Churchgoing Christians, Stay-at-Home Mothers, Oil and Coal Companies and their employees, Business Owners both large and small, Seniors not dependent on Social Security and Medicare, Military and Patriotic Americans, and anyone alarmed at government overreach hold no interest for Obama.

Romney's task is to motivate the latter group to show up at the polls in bigger numbers than Obama's aggrieved groups. The result is going to shape what kind of country America will be for the next two generations; a Socialist, perhaps Marxist paternalistic faux-democratic dictatorship, or more of a free society that allows people to achieve success based on their individual talent, ability, and motivation.