Obama Will Win and World Won’t Explode | Tom O'Hara

Let me save you some time and emotional wear and tear: Barack Obama is going to be re-elected and the world is not going to end.

I want to let all you Floridians know early so you can turn off the TV and get outside and golf and garden now that the temperature is starting to drop.

Like me, you retirees have lots of time on your hands and the temptation to watch Fox or CNN or MSNBC can be overwhelming, but unless he has a Lewinsky moment, Obama is going to win on Nov. 6.

He’s going to get between 51 percent and 53 percent of the popular vote and about 300 electoral votes. There are only 43 days left and most of the polls and election models have him as the clear winner.

So, get out the golf clubs, rev up the boat, take the grandkids to Disney World and Busch Gardens and turn off the TV.

Besides, I don’t think Mitt Romney would have been happy as president. I suspect he’s really a rational guy – as his stint as Massachusetts governor demonstrated – who would have been badgered by his handlers to do all sorts of harsh things he really didn’t want to do.

While I’m making predictions, let me also say that the Democrats will narrowly retain control of the Senate and the GOP will continue to rule the House.

And the best part is that everything is going to be fine.

Once the election is over, Obama will start playing more golf with House Speaker John Boehner and they’ll figure out a way to steer the country smoothly away from the fiscal cliff.

And the economy will continue to recover and your grandkids will start getting decent jobs and moving out of their childhood bedrooms.

And we’ll stop squandering American treasure and lives in Afghanistan. I’ve never understood America’s obsession with military might and spending. I hope it’s obvious to everyone by now that we can’t export democracy and Western values with armored Humvees, fighter jets and exhausted soldiers.

Most sensible leaders in Washington know that if we are going to balance the budget, we have to stop wasting money and lives in ideological black holes like Iraq and Afghanistan.

So it’s time to cheer up. The folks in Washington will pound out some sort of budget compromise that will satisfy the credit rating agencies. The economy will lumber back to life. Diplomats, the CIA and Special Forces will keep the terrorists at bay. The Social Security checks will keep coming and Medicare will keep paying your medical bills.

I’m sure you’ll all join me as we watch the first debate. That’s fun because we get to sit around the campfire, hear the exact same words and then reach wildly different conclusions about who won. And, of course, almost no one will decide to change his or her vote.

The only reason to pay any attention to the presidential campaign during these final days is to marvel at the staggering amount of money being spent to win over a tiny fraction of people whose votes are not going to make the slightest bit of difference.

A former managing editor of The Palm Beach Post and Cleveland Plain Dealer, Tom O'Hara is a national columnist for Florida Voices.

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