Arizona Law Changes Dem Agenda

The horrible racist law coming out of Arizona has upended the dem senate agenda and now appears to be causing dems to rethink their agenda. Now, instead of taking on energy, Harry Reid seems determined to take on immigration.

This might be a move by Harry Reid because of his horrible polling showing him trailing his repub opponent.

I am not sure if that is Reid's agenda but this is a HUGE hot button issue and has to be done perfectly. If not, the American people will only become more angry and the government. Tread lightly Mr. Reid

Taxes Lowest In 60 Years

Why isn't this being talked about more. Again, dem messaging sucks!!

Huge Week For Dems, GOP and Health Care

This kind of sums it up.

"This is a week for the history books, one way or another. The participants understand that, which helps to explain the intensity of the procedural maneuverings. But some are disinclined to focus on the broad impact, if only because they are too anxious to consider the ramifications if their side fails."

Democrats Are Freaking Out

This quote from First Read: Found it at Politico:

"If we told you that Democrats were favored to lose about eight Senate seats (six of which are in states Obama carried in '08), lose some 30 to 40 in the House, and see their top domestic issue -- health care -- stalled in Congress, you'd guess that President Obama's approval rating was, what, 35%? Maybe 40%? But as any close follower of American politics knows, Obama's approval is at or near 50% (even at 53% in the always-volatile Gallup daily track). Yet Democrats, including what we saw and heard from Evan Bayh yesterday, are behaving like Obama is at 35%. This is particularly ironic when we're just a year-plus removed from a president whose approval was 25% to 30%. There is no doubt that this is a TOUGH political environment for Democrats, but are they making it tougher by running for the hills when things might not be as bad for them as was the GOP's situation from 2006-2008? And what does it say about the Democrats and their ability to govern when they're acting like this when their president is at 50%? Republicans rallied around their president in '04, when he was hovering around 50%."

DailyKos Poll Shows Craziness of Republican Base

DailyKos had a recent study done to see how crazy the repub base is. It comes back pretty shocking. Here are some highlights:

Do you think Barack Obama is a socialist?

Yes 63
No 21
Not Sure 16

Do you believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President than Barack Obama?

Yes 53
No 14
Not Sure 33

Do you believe Barack Obama is a racist who hates White people?

Yes 31
No 36
Not Sure 33

Should gay couples receive any state or federal benefits?

Yes 11
No 68
Not Sure 21

Check it out. There are some other really disturbing part and Kos kind of has a point about all of this.

"Ultimately, these results explain why it is impossible for elected Republicans to work with Democrats to improve our country. Their base are conspiracy mongers who don't believe Obama was born in the United States, that he is the second coming of Lenin, and that he is racist against white people."

This is why dems should not try and negotiate with repubs. They are useless.

Exercise In Futility

I have never seen a situation where beating your head against a wall gave good results but for some reason the White House seems to think it will.

"White House political adviser David Axelrod tells Mike Allen the White House is looking for more opportunities to involve Republicans in the tough choices necessary in governing,"

Really? More opportunities? The repubs have actually rebounded in polls because of their objective agenda. So, why would they offer to do anything when they have seen such success in doing nothing?

The problem. Dems messaging. Dems still do poorly in having a common message.

Not Looking Good For Dems

Because of bad jobs and the glacial pace of health care, people are angry. And so they should be. But this is not boding well for dems. There is a possibility that dems could lose up about 5-7 senate seats. Even senators who have a long history of good politics in solid dem states are at risk.

CQ politics has a good graphic up that says there are 9 toss up races. And most of those are currently held by dems. To add to the frustration there's this:

"Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) 'once rock solid approval rating has taken a slide. For the first time in nearly nine years, Schumer's approval rating has fallen below 50%.'"

Yea, that is right. Chuck seems to be taking a hit as well. Dems need to change the tune to this year's election quickly.

Dems Messaging Still Sucks

A new Pew Research Poll shows that only 32% of Americans know that the GOP was blocking the health care bill. This is absolutely ridiculous. Not only do dems have to fight tooth and nail to get anything passed, the public doesn't even know how hard they are working.

Dems have always had a hard time of getting their message across but I'll be damned if I am going to let this one slide past. It is their responsibility to let Americans know who is standing in the way of millions of people getting health care.

Dems, you will never be able to legislate until you can effectively put the heat on the GOP. This low number of public awareness of GOP obstructionism cannot be allowed to continue.

Troubling Retirements

Recently, 3 congressional dems have stated their intention to retire giving repubs possible easy pickups in the upcoming 2010 election. When the dems lost control of the house in 1994, they had 30 dems retiring.

Now, while we only have three, this does not mean it will continue to the point of 1994 levels. But it is troubling. The dems are meeting soon to discuss how to stop/slow the reps from retiring.

Dems Must Attack

Good article in the Times about how the dems need to work the 2010 election cycle.

"Now that Democrats control the White House, Congress and most governorships, voters’ discontent with the status quo represents their burden, which has Democratic strategists considering tactics to push back challengers."

The dems really need to do this. Next year they need to unapologetically stand up for their agenda (provided they get health care and immigration passed). Then attack anyone who tries to paint the dem agenda as bad for America.

The problem that comes up with the dems is that they don't do this. They try and justify what they have done. Dems don't need to justify. Everyone knows that health care needs to be changed. Strong confrontation to any charges against you.

Public Favors Bipartisan

Political Wire picked up this quote from Greg Sargent:

"Americans are overwhelmingly convinced that Republicans are not pursuing a bipartisan health care compromise in good faith, but the public wants Obama to keep trying to find common ground with them anyway."

My question is: why in the hell is bipartisan still apart of this society? It is obvious that repubs have made a decision to obstruct because to go along with the dem's agenda will get them no where politically. So, they would prefer stopping important legislation rather than help out. I left bipartisan a long time ago. If I were a dem politician, I would speak to a couple repubs with sincere interest in furthering America and let the rest rot in the minority.

If Obama can get things done, the repubs will only further cast their party into obscurity.

2010 Midterm Election Might Not Be Good For Dems

A new article out has dems losing many house races in the 2010 midterm election. From Politico:

"Some of the most prominent and respected handicappers can now envision an election in which Democrats suffer double-digit losses in the House — not enough to provide the 40 seats necessary to return the GOP to power but enough to put them within striking distance."

It is hard to predicte 13 months in advance so Obama has his work cut out for him. He needs to get health care passed and start working on less contreversial bills but this does not mean dems will lose bad. It is just that things are looking that way.

Finally, Dems Sticking Up For Public Option

More of this please.

"Leaders of four Democratic caucuses representing more than 120 members of Congress said Wednesday that they would vote against any health overhaul legislation that excludes a “robust” government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers." (emphasis mine)

Why? Because the "public option" has been getting a beating as of late with repubs controlling the message. With crap like this:

"Republicans are out in force against a public option, seeing it as a precursor to full government takeover of health insurance. Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, takes to the Senate floor routinely to warn against government-supplied insurance."

72% of the population wants a public option. But it seems that even the dems don't hear the will of the people. How do we know? Because of crap like this from the dems:

"White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met last night at the U.S. Capitol with Senate Democrats and told them Obama is 'open to alternatives' to a new government insurance program in order to get legislation overhauling the health-care system to his desk, said Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota.'"

Come hell or high water should the dems let the repubs push them around. Bipartisanship is assinine. However, it depends on your definition of bipartisan. From Dailykos

"Congressional Republicans are uniformly against a public option, but as Kilgore points out, about half of Republicans who don't live or work in DC support a public option...

1. They [dems] can pursue Congressional bipartisanship, which will put them at odds with their own base and likely create political cover for Republicans who might otherwise have issues in their base, or

2. They can pursue grassroots bipartisanship, which will put them on the side of an overwhelming majority of Americans and create a schism within the Republican-leaning electorate."

What does that mean? It means don't deal with the elected repubs. They're useless. Deal with the grassroots repubs. They want it. Give it to them.

At the end of the day, I can't stand that Obama wants to deal with repubs when the congressional repubs will do anything to sabotage the public health plan.

Senator Arlen Specter Switches Parties

WOW!!! Seeing his looming loss in the next election as a repub, moderate Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has made a smart move to become a democrat. This must pain him dearly but at the end of the day, it's about survival.

"I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary. I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election."

With Franken being seated in June after Coleman's futile appeal, the dems will have 60 seats. This is huge. Health Care, Employee Free Choice Act, Supreme Court Appointees, everything is at the dems fingertips. 

Don't fuck it up dems. 

Update:

From Politicalwire:

"The Hill reports Senate Republican leaders "received no heads up" from Specter about his decision.

Meanwhile, Ben Smith reports Vice President Joe Biden "deeply involved" in the talks with Specter to make the switch.

NBC News says Democrats promised Specter would face no Democratic challenger but that he was promised no committee chairmanship in return for switching parties."

Update II:

Why did he change parties? See here about a previous post. 

Dems Rebranding GOP

The Hill is reporting that the dems are trying to take the ugliest of the GOP and rebrand the uglies as the leaders. The three uglies being Cheney, Gingrich and Rove (I would throw Limbaugh in there as a seasoning.) Each of the three suck up huge amounts of media time and space whenever they talk. So people see them as leaders. The great thing about this is they are old, white and most of America doesn't like them.

The dems are also rebranding them as the part of "NO" and "No Ideas". This will also help to keep the GOP on the ropes for a long time to come. It is true that they have no credible ideas and they are severe obstructionists, but with dems hitting this theme home for the next year and a half until the midterm elections, I think the GOP is in real trouble. 

What has changed over the past several years? People see that the GOP screwed things up so badly that their old tactics seem childish. Not only are the cultural wars of the 90's and early 00's no longer affective. The labels as soft on national security don't stick to dems anymore. It is so bad for the repubs that Politico wrote how Obama doesn't care about any attacks coming out from the right.

Obama is on Leno. He has the Greatful Dead over to the Oval Office. And just today Usher was spotted at the white house. The right is in such a frenzy they will probably end up screwing themselves into the ground.