Obama Will Survive This Brutal Summer

This summer has been perfectly miserable for President Obama, but Charles Blow sees brighter days ahead. Yes, the November elections will be painful, too, but once they pass the president will receive a "magnificent gift"—Republicans will actually have to stop talking and pick a candidate to challenge him in 2012. "The very thought of Newt and Sarah squaring off thrills me to no end," he writes in the New York Times.

If not one of them, then the "bungling Bobby Jindal," the "devastingly boring Mitt Romney," Mike Huckabee (who reminds Blow of Floyd the Barber from the Andy Griffith Show), or Michael Steele ("if there is a God"). It's sure to be great fun. "When this sideshow begins, Obama will be able to pass the popcorn and enjoy the frostiness. The summer will be a distant memory." (More President Obama stories.)