President Obama won reelection last night, after a campaign that featured a lot of talk of "Romnesia" and much less discussion of what he'd do in a second term. It gave me a strong sense of deja vu: not for 2008, but for 2004, when President Bush slogged to a similarly narrow, ugly victory by dousing Senator John Kerry in buckets of mud. As the Washington Post's Charles Lane mentioned yesterday, President Obama is "the second president in a row to win election as a uniter- and then campaign for reelection by trashing his opponent."

That parallel may say a lot about what's ahead. While Obama hasn't offered much substance on the trail, he did tell the Des Moines Register in an off-the-record interview that he hopes to fashion a big budget deal and push immigration reform. Readers will recall that Bush similarly planned to tackle Social Security reform and immigration reform. The problem: narrow, agenda-free victories don't produce mandates, educate voters, or intimidate the opposition. They leave the winner ill-equipped to do much of anything, especially when governing a divided nation and when the opposition controls half of Congress.

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