PEGGY NOONAN: WHERE WAS THE TEA PARTY?

Think about the sheer political facts of the president’s 2012 victory. The first thing we learned, in the weeks after the voting, was that the Obama campaign was operating with a huge edge in its technological operation—its vast digital capability and sophistication. The second thing we learned, in the past month, is that while the campaign was on, the president’s fiercest foes, in the Tea Party, were being thwarted, diverted and stopped.

Technological savvy plus IRS corruption. The president’s victory now looks colder, more sordid, than it did. Which is why our editor, James Taranto, calls him “President Asterisk.”

Indeed. Some of us, of course, saw the “colder, more sordid” side of the Obama operation earlier than others.

Meanwhile, Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “Suppose this is right, then one should expect similar efforts in 2014. Shouldn’t those who were targeted before be thinking of ways around such bottle necks? Hopefully it isn’t the case that the emergence of a movement election like the 2010 midterm now depends on 501(c)4 regulations. That would be a pathetic denouement for our political system.”

There’s an answer to the (c)4 thing — self-exempt. But people should be thinking of other countermeasures, and other possible tactics. Obama’s weaker now, but the Dems haven’t given up — and need to keep Senate to help limit investigations before 2016.