As one of my favorite political experts is fond of saying, ¡°Obama acts like he¡¯d really rather be an ex-president.¡± This week, he sort of got his wish.

There¡¯s no third-act rally to hope for now. The One True Hero is not going to vanquish the unexpectedly tenacious super villain. The last two years of Barack Obama¡¯s presidency will be spent with a solid Republican majority in both houses of Congress, one delivered, in large part, by voters¡¯ discontent with Obama himself.

If there is one thing that Obama should regret most deeply, it was this fateful quote: ¡°Elections have consequences,¡± he said. ¡°I won.¡± Republican intransigence has stymied the president for four years. But the seeds of that revolution were laid in the first two years of Obama¡¯s term, when giddy Democrats decided that he was the second coming of FDR, and Republicans would just have to go along with the Democratic agenda or get left behind.