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Brilliant! A compilation of major polling resources shows that republicans have nearly closed the gap with democrats in a generic congressional vote. This is a poll where voters are asked, without naming any specific names, if they are likely to republicans or democrats in the upcoming 2010 midterm elections. Democrats now lead by only 1.5% after the gap had been well into double digits at the time President Obama took office.
The village consensus on this is going to be that if only Democrats had been more bipartisan that the numbers would be better. Debunking such nonsense is a waste of my time and your brain cells. There are two main reasons why these numbers are where they are: Republicans understand opposition politics: when you're in the opposition, you don't smile bipartisanly, you gnaw at the ankles of the ruling party. Nothing they do is right, everything they do is wrong. You talk about how their policies are going to fail, so that if they do, you are the opposition (Democrats did not understand this when in opposition). Continuation of ineffective Bush policies. Not to put too fine a point on it, but in too many cases Obama and the new Congress are pursuing Bush lite policies. - Escalate in Afghanistan
- Spend more money on the military
- Get out of Iraq around about the time Bush wanted to anyway
- Continue the Bush/Paulson financial policies
- A stimulus bill which was 40% tax cuts (granted, not tax cuts for the rich, but still tax cuts)
Americans voted for Democrats because they were sick of Bush and Bush era policies. And here Congress is repeatedly voting for Bush era policies. Congressional numbers are melting down faster than presidential ones because people know that Obama's their only hope. It may not be much of a hope, but if he can't fix things, they've got to wait most of 4 years for a chance at someone who does. Proper governance liberal style works like this. Pass effective bills even if it requires not being bipartisan. When those effective bills create good effects (a good economy, everyone having good health care) reap the benefits of voters being happy with good jobs and not going bankrupt over health care. Congress's stimulus bill was crap. Congress's cap and trade bill is crap. Every indication is that the health care bill is likely to be... crap. Why would people be happy with this? It's the economy stupid. By choosing to bail out financial companies instead of the real economy Obama and Congress cast their die. It has not lead to a recovery in the real economy, and by the time the next recession happens my prediction and that of many others is that jobs will still not have recovered to pre-recession levels. This is not something unknown to the Obama administration, they are well aware of it. Their hopes of winning the next election are based on two things: Republican disarray, and the financial sector continuing to give much more money to Democrats. Neither is a sure thing. Good policy creates a country in which people are doing better than in the past. People who feel they are doing better vote for the incumbent more than not. Congress and Obama seem to have forgotten this basic electoral reality. The will reap as they have sowed.
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