Back in July 2009, when President Obama's approval rating was 57 percent (but slipping), I predicted that when the 2010 mid-term elections came round, because of the health care bill, Dems in Congress "will enjoy the freedom of running away from the White House, even to the point that in some tossup seats next year, we'll see some Dems running against Obama as much as their Republican opponents."
Prediction fulfilled:
CBS Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes said the Democrats are distancing themselves from President Obama.Just a few days ago, polls showed Republicans for Congress with a 10-point edge in general (that is, a preference for a party rather than for a particular candidate). Now the edge is up to 12 percent, 48-36. Except, of course, that's not an "edge," it's an electoral blowout. Some political commentators say that the Republicans could pick up as many as 45 seats in the US House, six more than they need to take the majority. Most commentators say even the Senate is now in play to change hands.
"Not only are they running away from President Obama, they're running away from being Democrats in some cases. In some races you actually see the Democratic candidates not really mentioning that they're a Democrat in their campaign ads," Cordes said.
With exactly eight weeks to go until election day, none of the indicators favor the Democrats. At this point, any serious attempt to reverse the momentum through legislative action, rushed through the Congress and to the president, will be seen as nothing but a desperate ploy to woo voters.
But such a ploy is almost impossible to imagine, anyway. The only things that could make voters reconsider their preferences are the very things that Democrats could never bring themselves to do: lower taxes for real, not just in a wealth-transferring sleight of hand, shrink the government, get serious about controlling unlawful immigration; the list goes on. Never. going. to. happen.
Just a year ago, Dem operative James Carville was crowing about how the Republicans were just a "regional party."
How fallen are the mighty! But - and this is a very big but - as I have written before to the Republicans: "don't get cocky."
It was not I who first characterized your party as one of big-government conservatism. Except for the self contradiction of the phrase, it's quite true. Does your party stand for limited government any more? Of course not. With every Democrat proposal to clamp more jaws of regulation and control on Americans, Republicans respond only that the bite of your counterproposals won't be as hard. But yours will still bite. Not for nothing are Republicans often called, "Democrats Lite."The Republican party is still a big part of the problem. If they don't wake up they'll be out on their ear in two years, too.
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