After elections in which the Republican side loses, I often have a little argument with my fellow righties. They’re apt to blame the Republican campaign — it stank. I say, “Yeah, but the voters had enough information. They voted with their eyes open — and they picked the other side.”

In brief, the voters are responsible for their choices.

Is there something different about this year? It is a question worth thinking about, just a bit. Do people know the extent of Obama’s leftism? Do they know his record? Do they know he was a little ACORN who grew up to be — well, what kind of oak?

The press will offer no help to the Republicans. You will look in vain for real Obama scrutiny in the establishment press. They feel a kinship with him. Plus, they’re busy trying to count Sarah Palin’s moose kills and whatnot.

Republicans must inform people about Obama themselves. They themselves must let people know what they’d be getting, if they elected Obama president. Obama will be scrupulously un-pinko. In the fall campaign, he has been playing a very moderate game — a moderate-to-conservative game.

The other day, I was lunching with a judge friend — wise guy (not a smart-aleck, but a guy who is wise). I said I thought that, in the first debate, Obama had appeared as a moderate Democrat — even a David Boren or Sam Nunn. My friend responded, “No — he became a Republican. And he should not be allowed to get away with it.”

But get away with it he may well. The Left is sitting still for his moderate act, of course — they know the game. They want to win, too. So Obama can sing “You’re a Grand Old Flag” all he wants. He can do a Reagan/Winthrop/Jesus all he wants. (Of course, it’d be nice if he got the words right: It’s a shining city on a hill, not a shining beacon.) (“Shining beacon” is a redundancy — but we all have to remember that Obama is a genius, just as we’ve been told.)

(Remember when the Democrats mocked GOP congressmen for singing “We Shall Overcome” — suggested that they learn the words? Well . . .)

I have a strong memory of 1992. Clinton and Gore ran a remarkably conservative campaign — I mean conservative philosophically. They were almost to the right of Bush and Quayle (on China, for instance). “Don’t you tag us with any of this McGovernite, Dukakite liberalism,” they said. “We’re a different story.” And they certainly campaigned that way.

Then they won. And I have a strong memory — speaking of those — of January 1993. Right before the inauguration. There was a kind of show out at what used to be called the Cap Center, I believe — in greater Washington. It was a Clinton inaugural party, or spectacular, of some sort. A show, as I said.

And Barbra Streisand shrieked into the microphone, “We’re in, we’re in! At long last, we’re in!” And I remember asking, “What do you mean ‘we’? Clinton and Gore didn’t campaign as Streisand Democrats.”

But what did it matter, once the votes had been counted? (BTW, we can talk about how Clinton and Gore governed some other time — interesting, not uncomplicated story.)

My perpetual — annual, biennial, certainly quadrennial — plea is for honest campaigning. And if both candidates show their true colors, allowing the voters to decide: fine. If there is egregious dissembling and subterfuge (there will always be some) — well, that’s not so hot. You know what I mean?

Let me wrap up a too-long post: If the American people want to elect what WFB used to call a “left-liberal,” fine — that is their right. But they deserve to know what they’re doing.