Economist Nouriel Roubini, who correctly predicted the financial collapse, believes the coming combination of President Obama in the White House and the Republicans controlling at least one part of Congress will result in a fiscal train wreck.

Pat Buchanan believes we are in uncharted waters, comparing the current state of the country to the French Fourth Republic which collapsed in the late 1950s when the governing parties were incapable of solving the pressing problems then facing France. They sent for Charles de Gaulle, who helped create a new constitutional order called the Fifth Republic. We have never made such a fundamental change, and I do not expect that we will do so now or in the near future. I expect that we will face political gridlock over the next two years (Paul Krugman certainly expects it), as the GOP will not be able to overcome any Presidential vetoes, and the President will not be able to get any initiative passed unless he has significant Republican support (which he will not get on anything of substance, unless he completely adopts a GOP position on the issue).

This means that Charles Krauthammer is correct when he contends that this election matters, as will the 2012 election, because we see real differences between President Obama and the GOP. But Krauthammer seems to think the election is about issues, the President who is attempting a leftist transformation of America versus the GOP trying to prevent such a transformation. Not so. As John Podhoretz correctly points out, this election is about punishing the President and the Democrats. Partisan Republicans, most of whom are ideologically Conservative, are understandably angry at Obama's efforts to move the country toward Democratic Socialism along the lines of Western Europe. They are being joined by independents voters, most of whom are non-ideological, who are unhappy with policies that seem to endorse bad behavior, whether that behavior is the recklessness of the rich, or the foolishness of the middle class, or the self-destructive behavior of the poor. They fear an American in decline, and in that fear they lashed out at the GOP in 2006 and 2008, and now are lashing out at the Democrats.

Adam Brodsky says voters on the Left and in the middle are blaming Obama for breaking his promises.

Robert Reich says business leaders should fear the Tea Party.