Bear with me for just a moment. John Boehner can afford to be the arrogant insufferable knucklehead he is because he comes from a district in Ohio where he’s not had to worry about any opposition for many years. His district leans very much Republican and sits between Cincinnati and Dayton, and along the Indiana line (see here). Boehner has become used to getting 65% of the vote or more.
But this year Boehner has drawn an opponent, a bright young attorney and West Point grad named Justin Coussoule. You can learn a bit about him here. Now I assume that Boehner, if he has even noticed this opponent is smirking away, saying to himself "fool"! Assuming that this year will be like all the rest since he went to Washington on 1990, he might be right. If things go as they normally do, probably so.
But......
But what we saw in Massachusetts was anything but normal. So maybe there is virtue in turning the Massachusetts loss on its head. What if Obama came to Ohio and made a concentrated effort stumping with a bright young candidate and taking on Boehner eye ball to eye ball? It could become a modern version of the Lincoln/Douglas debates.
There are many stories of ancient armies meeting on the field of battle and each sending their strongest warrior out for a one on one confrontation while everyone else watched. Sometimes the outcome of that single one-on-one contest was sufficient to settle the matter and no further battle was necessary. If Obama could defeat Boehner in his own district, Republicans and Teabaggers across the country would turn and run for cover.
So now, I know this little fantasy is highly unlikely, but it is amusing. I just like the idea of Boehner worrying about brown spots on his pants instead of mainting the right shade of orange. And in the meantime keep an eye on Justin Coussoule, he might just catch our tanning bed jocky by surprise a bit. He deserves our support.