Storm clouds for Dems; I hope GOP is not able to avoid reformation
A blog post illustrates what are shaping up to be bad omens for the Dems in 2010. As is noted:
The political scandals surrounding Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and Senator Roland Burris have handicapped the Democrats’ chances of keeping Obama’s old Senate seat. Governors in Colorado and New York appointed two relative unknowns to fill Ken Salazar’s and Hillary Clinton’s shoes, respectively, both of whom left for the Cabinet. And then Ted Kennedy died, prompting a Massachusetts special election due to be held in January.
Even worse, there are at least five incumbents who are facing competitive races: Arkansas’s Blanche Lincoln, Pennsylvania’s new Democratic Senator Arlen Specter, Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Connecticut’s Chris Dodd and Barbara Boxer, who will face off with former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in California. Reid and Dodd have some of the worst polls in the Senate — hovering near 30% approval ratings. “Illinois, Pennsylvania, Connecticut: those will be the most expensive to defend,” says Nathan Gonzales, political editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report, which tracks congressional races. “The more money you have to spend on defense takes away from what you’re spending on offense.”
The potential re-entry of the filibuster into the political calculus, even the loss of the Senate, explains The One’s rash urgency in ramrodding His agenda through the Congress.
It’s my hope that this suicide attempt by the Dems does not give the RNC an “opt-out” of putting out to pasture the tools that put us in this mess to begin with.
[...] [...]
The worst thing the GOP could do is return to a Rove-like playbook of compassionate conservatism. I think the nation’s economic status alone makes that untenable. The long-term outlook for our national debt, the status of the US dollar, inflation, Chinese growth… all of this makes it obvious to me that we’ve got a ton of federal weight that needs to be jettisoned overboard or we’re going under.
more than a ton. many, many tons. there’s a weaning off of federal funny money that has to happen, or else. it will be painful. and no politician, no matter his or her skills, can broadly sell a message of weaning and get elected. At least, I don’t think it’s doable, yet it has to be done.