Posted on 11/19/2014 5:34:07 PM PST by Kaslin
No kidding. On almost every measure, the Democratic Party has lost significant ground to Republicans during the Barack Obama era. Six years ago, they seemed ascendant, on the verge of the mythical “permanent majority” not just on the federal level but in state legislatures, politically and culturally, and certainly demographically. After suffering through not just one but two historic midterm debacles, Republicans are now much stronger than they were during the peak of the George Bush era — or even the Ronald Reagan era, in all places but the White House.
Politico reports today that former Clinton advisor Donna Brazile went to the White House two weeks ago with a message. Clean up your act and fix the party you’ve broken — and make sure Obama takes responsibility for the effort:
Enough, Donna Brazile told White House political director David Simas the day after the midterms.
Democrats are in worse shape than when President Barack Obama came into office — the number of seats they have in Congress, the number of governors, a party approval rating that’s fallen behind Republicans for the first time in recent history, enthusiasm, energy. The White House, Brazile said when she came to meet with Simas, has got to focus for the next two years on getting the party into better shape, and Obama’s the best and most effective person to get out the message.
The White House has been issuing sunny proclamations ever since the elections and trying to focus on Obama’s current activities rather than the massive rebuke he got from voters over his performance in office. That’s a façade, Edward-Isaac Dovere writes, intended to distract from the obvious:
“People are licking their wounds… trying to figure out where they go from here: ‘Can we be the phoenix rising from the ashes?’ Where are these issues where he’s going to dig in his heels and fight? Where does he compromise with Republicans, and how does he manage the politics of that?” said a Democratic strategist familiar with the White House. …
Great, Democrats say. Now make something of it. Talk about the economic progress that’s happened. Talk about how to achieve job growth to build on it.
“The best thing he can do is focus on income inequality, and talk about and propose things, and just be a fierce advocate for addressing the economic divide,” said another Democratic strategist with ties to the White House. “That will leave people after two years saying the Democratic Party really stands for something.”
That ignores the fact that Obama and the entire White House have been talking non-stop about the success of their economic initiatives while simultaneously exhausting the rhetorical library on income inequality. Other than “war on women” and climate-change demagoguery, it’s practically all they’ve discussed. The election showed that no one buys their pitch any longer. People remain pessimistic about the economy, and they’re more concerned about job creation than income inequality.
This also misses the fallout from Jonathan Gruber, too. The architect of ObamaCare made it clear that the White House and Democrats didn’t just deceive voters, they strategized on how to do it and how to fake out the CBO so they didn’t get caught. Post-Gruber, no one’s going to believe anything this White House has to say, right up to and including Obama, who made the ridiculous claim that he’d barely heard of Gruber while earlier video showed him clearly bragging about stealing Gruber’s ideas. Obama and the White House lie about lying. Why would more talk help?
The remarks from White House officials suggest that Obama will go big on progressive policy to re-establish his credibility over the next two years. Josh Kraushaar warns in National Journal that such a strategy will likely do more damage to the Democratic Party than the previous six years have already done:
President Obama’s biggest problem over the next two years may not be coming from recalcitrant Republicans, but from members of his own party blanching at his activist agenda over the final two years of his presidency. While the midterm election results suggested widespread dissatisfaction with the president’s policies, Obama nonetheless is planning to press forward on several polarizing decisions in his final two years. It could help advance his legacy, but come at the expense of the Democratic Party’s long-term health.
Three of the administration’s biggest agenda items—threatening a veto of bipartisan legislation authorizing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, reaching a nuclear deal with Iran, and issuing an executive order legalizing millions of illegal immigrants—divide Democrats, and unite Republicans. If the president moves forward with all of them, it would aggravate fissures in an increasingly-divided Democratic Party. And it would put Hillary Clinton, his party’s expected 2016 standard-bearer, in an uncomfortable position even before she announces her candidacy. She’s already avoided taking stances, if not outright rejecting the direction Obama is heading during his final two years in office.
The dirty secret in Washington is that while Obama (rightly) blamed Republicans for holding positions to the right of the American electorate, the president is pursuing policies that are equally as far to the left.
Obama didn’t learn the Bill Clinton lesson after the first midterms. He’s not interested in learning it after his second massive defeat, either. Even with Bill Clinton’s more strategic direction, Democrats ended up losing narrowly at the end of his presidency. Obama may be leading Democrats into a reverse 2008, or perhaps even worse.
I had forgotten his name. Thank you for the link.
And that Obama deferred most of the Obamacare pain until near the 2016 Presidential election..oh wait..
Ditto. The bottom line with this whole experiment is that for the first time in US history, liberals have been given unfettered access to implement their policies at every level of government. And in minimal time, that experiment has proven itself to be an unmitigated disaster. Unfortunately, these same liberals lack the ability to think critically and recognize the failure of what they have implemented.
Steven Chu is a prime example. He left academia and seized the opportunity to implement the very policies he had been preaching to captive classroom audiences for decades. Yet when those policies failed in catastrophic fashion, he retreated back to academia only to continue teaching the same failed policies. I have yet to see a single example of any of these leftists acknowledging the error of their ways and for the first time in their lives embracing liberty.
Democrats just don’t understand. The Messiah is a member of the Messiah Party, the sole member. He doesn’t just want to break the Republican Party, he wants to kill both major parties!
.. and yet, he is now about to double down on stupid and piss off at least 70% of the country, including a lot of DimocRATS. I think he’s going for an approval rating of ONE percent.
.. and dollars to dognuts that the GOPe will give us another RINO loser.
Tonight's Amnesty Speech and tomorrow's Ferguson street demonstrations will see The Mombasa MF triumphant with his base, hailed by the MSM, leaving the GOPe, not even warming their new seats yet, reviled as racist obstructionists.
Question: "Will the RINO SOBs in leadership roles in the House and Senate fight?" Will Boehner and McConnell find the path back toward Constitutional government?
It was a coalition of two groups, those who have advanced university degrees and those who have less than a high school education. What could possibly be wrong with that?
“I have yet to see a single example of any of these leftists acknowledging the error of their ways and for the first time in their lives embracing liberty.”
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In their view there cannot possibly be anything wrong with their ideas, the trouble is that they can’t find anyone wise enough to implement those ideas in a proper fashion.
I almost never quote scripture but ROMANS 1:22, Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools...
Bingo. The Dems are so blind as to not realize that they are the ones that Gruber was talking about. The first thing that is/will be "fundamentally transformed" is the Democrat party. Especially with amnesty, the Dem party will have to let the S.O.B's (south of the border) have a seat at the nation table. And the Dems do not understand how those people do politics; their way is that of a vicious bully. It will be their time to rule. (see tagline)
The webs they (both parties) weave... I hope the DIMs/LIBs & RINOs all grt caught in thrir lies and deceptions.
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