As we close in on Election Day, everyone’s naturally fixated on the Obama-Romney race. But if I were the Democrats, I’d be radiating the calm confidence of (in Mark Twain’s famous phrase) “a Christian holding four aces.” Because as much as Obama hates Romney and loves the golfing and partying aspect of being president, the truth is that many Democrats won’t be sorry to see him go. Obama’s ineptitude and his manifest hostility toward the country he nominally leads are embarrassing to many donks, and the increasing likelihood that he will turn out to be a one-term wonder like the first (and so far, only) black mayor of New York, David Dinkins, is causing them to start looking beyond 2012.

You remember Dinkins — he defeated Rudy Giuliani in their first head-to-head match-up in 1989, then lost in 1993 after the Crown Heights riot and other disasters finally brought the citizens to their senses and, holding their noses, they called the cops and elected a law-and-order Republican in place of a liberal Democrat.

— Michael Walsh