the cloud’s silver lining does you no good if you’ve been killed by the tornado. You have assumed that B. Hussein will not turn the US into a smoking ruin.

I made no such assumption. You read that into my statement. I said “it will be a very rough and rocky time between now and then. This is the begining of a Turning and the America of 2030 will be a different place, for better or worse.” A smoking ruin falls under the “or worse” clause, and is entirely possible.

Kinuachdrach said “We got in this situation because the Republican political class forgot who took them to the dance.”

I agree. The Gingrich revolution stalled (not sure it was Newt’s fault entirely, he proved a better minority leader than Speaker, but his instincts were correct. He just wasn’t able to execute effectively). The real lesson of the GOP losses in 2006 was not Iraq, but rather the Bridge to Nowhere and the K-Street Project, not to mention rather limp-wristed advocacy of real changes (e.g. why do the tax cuts expire if they aren’t renewed? Tax increases are never temporary.) The GOP Congress tried too hard to make government into their creature, not realizing it was, and will always be, a pet of their opponents, a necessary evil that must be kept penned in at all times if you don’t want it to devour you.