The gap is enormous; it's an abyss, and its name is Benghazi.  They the people have re-elected Barack Hussein Obama, and we have been talking to ourselves.  If the disastrous consequences could be clearly perceived, they might lead to a national awakening, but I fear they will be as muddled and confused as the public mind, and the public mind will adjust as it goes along, for the same reasons why it chose to intoxicate itself with the Obama illusion.  The hope may well be a crucible of empty promises, but the change is implacable.  The United States has slipped out on its history.

It seems that the economic factor was, as expected, decisive for the vast majority of voters.  And that's why they chose Obama over Romney?  When European voters dissatisfied with the state of their economies systematically reject incumbents, Americans, of all people, reward economic failure?  Foreign policy, on the other hand, apparently weighed less than zero in determining the choice of voters.  Logical, isn't it?  Iran races to go nuclear, the Arab-Muslim world is in a paroxysm of rage and destruction, Israel's existence is under dire threat, European societies tremble as their providential economies run out of gas and their demographics link up with the enraged sharia-imposing forces massed on the borders of the free world, so why should foreign policy be an issue?

Why have issues anyway when you can just groove with a guy who tells you he's done a great job, the economy is on the mend, al-Qaeda is on the run, and Osama bin Laden is dead?  Here comes the 21^st-century inside-out version of the Know-nothings -- pro-immigrant and anti-American, anti-Christian and Islam-friendly, the Know-nothings welcome with open arms the cool trendy vanguard of totalitarian conquest.  And they can't get enough of it.  They sincerely believe they are defending noble humanitarian values against the greatest danger known to humanity -- restriction on abortion and gay rights.

If it were a harmless question of partisan politics -- some like it Democrat; others like it Republican -- I wouldn't rain on the other party.  If it were a normal democratic process of alternating power blocs, nothing would justify the tone of what follows.  Mild disappointment dissipates quickly over a four-year period -- the game remains open, better days come again.

Am I wrong in thinking that what has just happened bears no resemblance to a normal election?  We are at war, and the incumbent committed an act of high treason a few short weeks before the election -- and, far from being a handicap, it wasn't even an issue.  He won a handsome victory.  How do you explain that to yourself?  Ordinary people with basic literacy living in one of the most free and open societies in the world, with a vigorous tradition of standing up for rights, cannot even begin to comprehend what happened in Benghazi.  And no one explained it to them.  We, of course, explored every nook and cranny, talked to those in the know, checked our sources, checked our facts, went back over the sequence of events minute by minute, recapitulated public statements by government officials from the president on down, put together intelligent videos...but we were talking to ourselves.  And influencing next to no one.

The public mind, let us recall, went berserk when looters disturbed the peace of Iraq after George W. Bush toppled Saddam Hussein.  That was long ago.  And do you remember the story about how we "created" Osama bin Laden out of whole cloth, armed and trained him in a foolish scheme to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan?  The lesson of that story was that we had a nerve trying to combat our former ally just because he organized the 9/11 attacks that toppled the World Trade Center and, perversely, the last shred of a notion of national sovereignty.

Am I wrong?  I don't have the heart for fact-checking today!  Isn't an attack on our embassy and the murder of our ambassador an act of war?  Instead of responding like a commander in chief, President Obama concocted an elaborate cover story.  He went to war against free speech in America and let our enemies go scot-free.  If that isn't high treason, it surely is lowly cowardice.  And if sacrificing the lives of the American ambassador and government agents in Benghazi to hide the fact that you are aiding and abetting jihadis in Syria isn't treason, isn't it as bad as creating Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan?  Tell me, please, in what world are we living when these questions are not the subject of broad public debate?

I may be wrong.  But, as always, I put my words squarely on the line.  Here is what I think will happen in the coming weeks and months.  The economy will pursue its downturn.  More and more Americans will be out of work.  Anger will mount; social cohesion will continue to weaken.  No more bailouts, no more shovel-ready jobs, no more gadgety greening.  The Man has his second term, so go do him something.

Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the government and society will be more open and perhaps flaunted.  Islamic pressure will increase domestically; resistance will become more dangerous and ineffective.

The president's visceral distaste for Israel will be more boldly expressed, and pressure on Israel to concede to Palestinian demands will increase dramatically.  The no-longer-secret Valerie Jarret negotiations with Iran will now succeed: sanctions will be lifted in exchange for hypocritical promises.  The Samantha Power doctrine will be held over Israel's head, lest that nation presume to defend itself.  The reaffirmation of Obama's power will unleash a new wave of international pressure on Israel accompanied by stepped up deligitimization.

Europe, where Obama is even more popular than on his home turf, will get nothing in exchange for its adulation.

The Republican House of Representatives will be short-circuited; congressional investigations will be stonewalled.

And much worse to come.

Or I am wrong, and we shall soon see.