Election Day had barely dawned when prominent Democrat and outgoing Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was making ridiculous excuses for his party's expected losses. Appearing on CBS's The Early Show, Mr. Rendell said it may be poor communication skills and unreasonable expectations that are responsible for anticipated Republican victories but the exact opposite is true.

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"We've got to learn to explain and communicate what we've done a lot more clearly," the governor declared. (source) In fact, Obama & Company did a great job of explaining (and often over explaining) not only what they have done but what they planned to do if allowed to hold onto power. Contrary to the oft-repeated message that the American people just don't get it, are too dumb to get it and/or need more speeches from President Obama in order to get it; we get it and have overwhelmingly decided we don't want it.

Mr. Rendell also claimed "expectations were unreasonably high" for the Obama presidency. To paraphrase former President Clinton, that depends on what your definition of unreasonable is. Is it unreasonable to believe that a presidential candidate will keep his promises to govern in a post partisan manner? To transcend racial politics? To heal the planet, end the wars and fundamentally transform the nation?

There is no one who deserves more blame for the sky-high expectations than Mr. Obama himself. Were millions of voters fooled by his platitudes and promises into voting for an unqualified candidate and his congressional accomplices? Of course. But that doesn't mean they acted unreasonably. When a con man tricks his mark, you don't blame the victim. You punish the con man and do what you can to get back what was lost.

That process begins today.