ELECTION ANALYSIS: IS JIM RENACCI ABOUT TO FOOL US ALL?

From the results of Tuesday's election, it is still apparent that America is deeply divided along partisan political lines.

Here in Stark County, the results of the Obama/Romney face off:

A mere 644 votes of 173,272 cast separate the two.

So Stark County could have gone either way and still may switch inasmuch as the provisional ballots voted on Tuesday will not be counted until the week of November 19th.  About 5,900 provisional/absentee ballots remain to be counted.

One of the consequences of Obama's reelection will be that Obamacare will in fact become fully implemented except as modified by a United States Supreme Court decision earlier this year.

One of the most strident voices against Obamacare since he ran against and defeated former Democratic congressman John Boccieri in 2008 is 16th District Republican congressman Jim Renacci.

Based on his continuing harangue and rail against Obamacare ever since the '08 campaign, one would expect that he will join hands with nearly all the other 234 Republicans elected to the new Congress on Tuesday to do everything but throw in the kitchen sink to make the Affordable Care Act (the official name of the health care reform law of 2008) unworkable.

But maybe not.

About a year out from this week's election, Congressman Renacci burst forth with an announcement on MSNBC that he had formed a bipartisan breakfast group.

Here is the MSNBC video of the announcement.



And, as recent as his and Sutton's appearance before the Jefferson Action citizen-participation project in Summit County (July through October), the need for more bipartisanship action in Congress seemed to be a continuing and emphatic Renacci theme.

The SCPR is somewhat skeptical of Renacci's new found "come let us reason together" way of being, but it could be for real and his Stark County constituents should hold his feet to the fire on his apparent change of heart.

As noted above, he has been a firebrand against Obamacare.  Now that Renacci has lost on the issue given the reelection of Obama, he should square up with political realities and be a constructive force within his blossoming breakfast group to find ways and means across the isle to have Obamacare be the very best in health care that it can possibly be.

While he has lost on the debate over the Affordable Care Act, Renacci did win his reelection bid over Democrat Betty Sutton on a relatively narrow scale in the "new 16th" (constituted for 2012 by the Constitutionally required decennial redistricting) which includes parts of Cuyahoga, Medina, Portage, Stark [Jackson, Lawrence and parts of Lake Township], Summit and Wayne counties.

The vote breakdown: (unofficial count)

To The Report, his personal post-election victory over Sutton and his supposed campaign commitment to bipartisanship will be put to the test on the health care issue.

Will he be a help or will he continue to be a hindrance on whether or not Obamacare gets accepted and embraced by Americans?

The SCPR for one will be watching to see whether Renacci's breakfast group will produce nourishment for those of us who want Congress (with a favorable rating ranging from 9 to 17 percent) to find solutions to the nation's problems through the political parties reaching out to one another.

Is the bipartisan breakfast group the real deal or will it prove to have been a cynical political manipulation designed to get Jim Renacci reelected?