Have you seen the political poll numbers lately? The President’s numbers are poor at best and things look worse for congress. Most of the incumbents from both parties are keeping their fingers crossed. However, the Democrats in congress are doing much worse. At one time they claimed that 2010 would bring the Summer of Recovery, but the opposite has happened. On top of everything else, this week the unemployment numbers took another step backwards.
So in spite of the Democrats expectations, things just keep getting worse. Pollster has charts showing the average of all polls, and they indicated the downward trends are still gaining steam. RedState is gloating about the numbers and anxious to promote them. They are especially gleeful in their review of the voters over age 55, which is an enormous block.
The seniors have “rejected every key element of the Obama Administration’s programs” and usually by more than a 2-1 ratio. The one category that stuck out to me has to do with the President’s claims that his program will bring the deficit down. The old folks reject that argument by nearly TEN to ONE! Since they have all been around longer that Mr. Obama, you would think he would listen to them, but sometimes “there are none so deaf as those who refuse to hear”.
It seems to me that the President and his Democratic Congress have blown an incredible opportunity. All along, he has claimed that a big portion of his health care plan would be covered by eliminating waste in Medicare and Medicaid. Since runaway spending has always been the knock on their party, they had a chance to hit a homerun and probably secure the Whitehouse and Congress for another decade, or even longer.
All they had to do was put some teeth in the meat. If they had spent the first year of his Presidency finding the areas in those two bloated programs that they could actually fix (which should not be very difficult) and employ their reliable ally, the media, to brag about their progress, they would have built up priceless credibility. Since they control both houses and all of the committees, nobody could have stopped them.
Then, once they had the trust of the voters they should have submitted a bill that is not 2,400 pages and open it up for legitimate debate. By keeping everything above board they could have reversed all of the distrust the people had built up under the Bush Administration.
So, Obama and the Democratic congress could have separated themselves from Bush by being forthright and actually cutting spending, but instead they decided to differentiate themselves from Bush by making him look like a cheapskate. Can you say trillions?
A lot of citizens still like the President so he needs to use his political clout in a different way. For one thing he should do what he said before he was elected. He was a great orator who showed the ability to bridge political and racial divides, but he has not lived up to his claims. All he has to do is call a major press conference and announce he has had a change of heart. Then govern in a manner similar to how he campaigned.
If he does that he might even have a realistic chance at getting reelected in 2012, but if he remains steadfast, he may just hand the Republicans the Whitehouse for another 12-year run similar to the Reagan/Bush years. As it stands now, the Dems are poised to lose their majority in the House of Representatives plus enough seats in the Senate to render them impotent for the remainder of the President’ first term. Even Harry Reid, the Senate leader is trailing in his state’s polls. If they don’t reverse themselves quickly, I am afraid they have sealed their fate.
So in spite of the Democrats expectations, things just keep getting worse. Pollster has charts showing the average of all polls, and they indicated the downward trends are still gaining steam. RedState is gloating about the numbers and anxious to promote them. They are especially gleeful in their review of the voters over age 55, which is an enormous block.
The seniors have “rejected every key element of the Obama Administration’s programs” and usually by more than a 2-1 ratio. The one category that stuck out to me has to do with the President’s claims that his program will bring the deficit down. The old folks reject that argument by nearly TEN to ONE! Since they have all been around longer that Mr. Obama, you would think he would listen to them, but sometimes “there are none so deaf as those who refuse to hear”.
It seems to me that the President and his Democratic Congress have blown an incredible opportunity. All along, he has claimed that a big portion of his health care plan would be covered by eliminating waste in Medicare and Medicaid. Since runaway spending has always been the knock on their party, they had a chance to hit a homerun and probably secure the Whitehouse and Congress for another decade, or even longer.
All they had to do was put some teeth in the meat. If they had spent the first year of his Presidency finding the areas in those two bloated programs that they could actually fix (which should not be very difficult) and employ their reliable ally, the media, to brag about their progress, they would have built up priceless credibility. Since they control both houses and all of the committees, nobody could have stopped them.
Then, once they had the trust of the voters they should have submitted a bill that is not 2,400 pages and open it up for legitimate debate. By keeping everything above board they could have reversed all of the distrust the people had built up under the Bush Administration.
So, Obama and the Democratic congress could have separated themselves from Bush by being forthright and actually cutting spending, but instead they decided to differentiate themselves from Bush by making him look like a cheapskate. Can you say trillions?
A lot of citizens still like the President so he needs to use his political clout in a different way. For one thing he should do what he said before he was elected. He was a great orator who showed the ability to bridge political and racial divides, but he has not lived up to his claims. All he has to do is call a major press conference and announce he has had a change of heart. Then govern in a manner similar to how he campaigned.
If he does that he might even have a realistic chance at getting reelected in 2012, but if he remains steadfast, he may just hand the Republicans the Whitehouse for another 12-year run similar to the Reagan/Bush years. As it stands now, the Dems are poised to lose their majority in the House of Representatives plus enough seats in the Senate to render them impotent for the remainder of the President’ first term. Even Harry Reid, the Senate leader is trailing in his state’s polls. If they don’t reverse themselves quickly, I am afraid they have sealed their fate.
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