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Jewish World Review August 20, 2010 / 10 Elul, 5770 Desperate Dems forced to find guts By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It's the sort of ad we expect to see many Republican challengers running variations of this fall. In it, the candidate decries illegal immigration and -- showing photos of President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- declares his independence from "the Washington crowd."
But it isn't a Republican who is running this particular ad. It's an incumbent Democrat, Rep. Joe Donnelly of Indiana.
Rep. Donnelly is in his second term. He voted for Obamacare and for the failed stimulus. He's a part of "the Washington crowd" he criticizes. His ad is disingenuous, and smacks of desperation.
"Can you imagine the polling this guy is seeing, to put out an ad like that in early August?" wondered an amazed poster at the Free Republic Web site.
Polls haven't been kind to Democrats lately. Barack Obama's job approval ratings are the lowest of his presidency. Congress' ratings are the lowest in the history of polling. By huge margins, those polled disapprove of the way the president and Democrats in Congress have handled health care, the economy, and illegal immigration.
Actual voters have been as unkind. Missouri, a swing state, and Michigan, a Democratic state, held primaries Aug. 3. In both, nearly twice as many people voted in the Republican primary as in the Democratic primary. And in Missouri, 72 percent of all voters rejected in a referendum the key component of Obamacare.
Their leaders have advised Democrats not to tout their legislative "accomplishments," since these are toxic. Democrats expected the financial reform bill they passed in July to be a "can't miss political winner," said Fortune magazine. It isn't working out that way.
"Leaders understood that the push, and the messaging used to sell it -- President Obama dusted off some antique populism in December, blasting 'fat cat bankers on Wall Street,' -- would mean the loss of some fund-raising support," wrote reporter Tory Newmyer. "They calculated that the political payoff would more than compensate for the foregone dollars, whose only purpose, after all, is to shore up votes."
But Main Street is unimpressed with the so-called "reform," and Wall Street is furious. Last year, financiers gave 60 percent of their campaign dollars to Democrats. Now, 70 percent of Wall Street donations are going to Republicans.
President Obama hoped that by picking a fight with Arizona on illegal immigration, he would fire up his base and divert attention from the souring economy. But voters everywhere so strongly support Arizona that Democrats like Mr. Donnelly are striving to put distance between themselves and the president. And Hispanics have not been impressed.
"(Obama) has a credibility problem right now with Latinos," Jorge Ramos, anchor of Univision, the largest Spanish language television network in the country, told the Webzine Politico.
Mr. Obama broke a campaign pledge to produce an immigration reform bill within a year of taking office, Mr. Ramos said, and Latinos are disillusioned by the lack of leadership from the White House.
Dread of impending doom can make people testy. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs lashed out at liberal critics of the president. This prompted endangered Florida Rep. Alan Grayson to call him "Bozo the spokesman," and demand his resignation.
The snit fit is unlikely to encourage dispirited Democrats to go to the polls Nov. 2.
Dread of impending doom also can make people grasp at straws. "Primary night yields good news for President Obama and Democrats," the Politico wrote when incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet won the Democratic primary in Colorado Aug. 10.
It was a rare win for a candidate endorsed by Mr. Obama. But in his "landslide" win, Mr. Bennet won fewer votes than did the loser in the Republican primary. The GOP winner led Sen. Bennet, 46-41, in the first post primary poll. This is what passes for good news among Democrats these days.
Politico is a piker in the straw-grasping department to Hill newspaper columnist Brent Budowski, who was convinced Democrats will rebound in November because when George W. Bush's memoir is published, it'll remind people of why they voted Democratic.
Imagine Mr. Budowski's disappointment when Mr. Bush postponed publication until after the election.
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JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration.
© 2009, Jack Kelly |
Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
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