“There has only been one president in American history who won a second term by a smaller popular vote percentage and electoral vote margin than four years before”

Michael Barone in RCP, musing on what a 2nd Obama term might be like.

Will a man who told Sen McCain ‘elections have consequences’ at a meeting which was designed to find compromises make any when he has no further elections to ponder?

Will a man who continually paints his domestic opponents as extremists find them moderate when he has no further elections to ponder?

Will a man who can’t stand to deal with the leader of one of our most important allies be able to stand this leader MORE when he has no further elections to ponder?

Will a man who told the leader of Russia he would have more room to give in become more firm when he has no further elections to ponder?

Will a man who told Joe the plumber he wants to spread around wealth, doesn’t believe small business owners built anything on their own, and continually shows disregard for classical western values (you silly bitter clingers) become more understanding of his own mindset when he has no further elections to ponder?

Will a man who is so convinced his persona brings peace to those who hate each other (especially us) making our facilities easy targets around the world, by failing to lead on security become more realistic when he has no further elections to ponder?

That was Woodrow Wilson, the Democrat elected in a three-way contest against his two predecessors in 1912 and re-elected in 1916 by 49 to 46 percent in popular votes and 277 to 254 in the Electoral College.

If California, which then had only 13 electoral votes, had not gone for Wilson by 3,773 votes, the incumbent would have lost.

In his first term, Wilson had legislative accomplishments more popular than Obama’s. A partisan Democratic Congress passed a new antitrust act, created the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve, lowered trade barriers and imposed an income tax on high earners.

When Americans voted in November 1916, World War I had been raging in Europe for more than two years. Hundreds of thousands were dying in trench warfare, and Wilson ran on the slogan of, “He kept us out of war.”

Wilson’s second term was wholly unlike his first. In April 1917, he went before Congress and got approval for a declaration of war against Germany. A military draft was instituted, a law passed criminalizing antiwar protests, the railroads were nationalized, and the top income tax rate was raised to 77 percent.

Wilson’s idealistic postwar plans were frustrated in the Treaty of Versailles, which was rejected by the Senate. Revolutionaries set off bombs on Wall Street and outside the attorney general’s house. Wilson’s party lost the 1920 election by a 60 to 34 percent margin.

This history is unlikely to be repeated if Obama is re-elected. But Obama’s problem, apparent in the feisty second presidential debate as well as the first, is that voters don’t know what he will do — beyond what he has done so far — in a second term.

His specific proposals — 100,000 teachers, infrastructure “investment” — are retreads. He is less specific on tax policy and budget deficits than Romney.

Presidents who get re-elected usually offer second term agendas. Obama hasn’t, especially on the economy. As a re-elected president, he will be as free of constraints, as Wilson was.

Voters must hope that a second Obama term won’t be as disastrous as the second Wilson term. Democrats must hope it’s not as disastrous for their party. 

As Yoda once said, when Luke claimed not to be afraid…. “YOU WILL BE.”