It's a centrist vs. a centrist, it's going to be dull. That's why "Anybody but Romney" was leading in the polls up to the primaries - from the mile-high view, Mitt Romney is John Kerry without the bags under his eyes. As soon as Newt Gingrich couldn't talk about moon colonies and Herman Cain couldn't put forth tax plans whose problems could be enumerated by fourth graders, the Republicans have had to settle with "we'd do much the same thing this guy is doing only we'd do it Republican-style."

As Congress still has a lower approval rating in the American public than Hugo Chavez, "Republican-style" just doesn't cut it. Romney needs to throw as much inbred insanity as he thinks he can get away with to keep the hillbillies who hate having a darkie president from staying home out of spite, and Obama needs to be just hopey-changey enough to keep the "I didn't vote" hipsters from staying true to their word.

'08 was different because Cheney and Turdblossom were still pulling the strings. I think if you look at it most inside-the-beltway pundits accept that either party will control the White House for 8 years; for the democrats, that gives them ample time to point fingers and borrow heavily and for the republicans, it gives them time for infrastructure and reserves to be built up enough to go spending again. Clinton was an anomaly that Lee Atwater warned about in 1986 and he upset the balance, that's one reason they hate him so much. That said, look to a Jeb Bush run in 2016 for things to get truly interesting because then the Republicans will actually be trying.