Posted on 03/13/2014 3:57:37 PM PDT by Kaslin
Alex Sink was the dream candidate for Democrats in a special Congressional election set in a swing district in Florida. Sink had served as the state's CFO and ran a very respectable race as the Democratic nominee for governor just four years ago.
Her opponent was a former lobbyist whose campaign encountered numerous bumps along the way. Many a political pundit had handicapped the race as close, but likely to go to Ms. Sink. But a funny thing happened on the way to her possible victory. Ms. Sink, in a state known for its sinkholes that often appear out of nowhere and swallow up cars or even whole houses, fell into a political version of such, the abyss of Barack Obama and his unpopular Obamacare.
The issue now becomes that of whether a marquee Florida contest is just a minor hole in the political earth or one that will swallow much of the Democratic Party in competitive races in November.
Rather than repudiate the Affordable Care Act, Ms. Sink chose to embrace parts of it and suggest that the alternative of no Obamacare at all would be much worse. Her argument failed, and with the president's approval ratings continuing to drop, Democratic candidates in competitive contests in 2014 will start putting major league distance between themselves and the president.
But they won't be alone. Potential Democratic candidates for the presidency, more specifically Hillary Clinton, must invent a way to separate themselves from the Obamacare debacle. For Clinton the task will be difficult given her longstanding advocacy for universal healthcare. Moreover, the program may become increasingly unpopular as the many extensions and exemptions the administration has offered various groups either come to an end or become necessary to eliminate to help make Obamacare work.
As I have noted in the past, Clinton's potential problems over the president's health care plan is a bit ironic given the fact that it is highly unlikely that, had she been elected in 2008, she would have been nearly as aggressive with such legislation.
In the meantime, Democrats must start to question the sanity of their consultants and even their top leaders such as Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid recently suggested that the stories related to the failure of Obamacare were contrived and untrue. This is proof positive that Harry Reid lives in a fantasyland of Washington insiders who have no concept how much Americans have come to dislike this law and this president.
In reality, the polling on the Affordable Care Act has been and will likely always be atrocious. It's one of those laws that, the more you learn about it, the more you can't stand it. This week the administration is trying to put a positive spin on relatively weak total numbers of individuals who have signed up for the ACA. But a shuffle of words or numbers can't really refute the fact that most Americans dislike this Big Brother, red-tape, heavy-handed intrusion into an area of their life that is most personal to them and where they least want to be treated like "a number."
In Florida, Ms. Sink chose to run on a theme of "why can't we all just work together?" That theme might have been more acceptable to the electorate when then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Reid rushed the ACA through, suggesting that we could all read the particulars after it became law. But no one wants to "get along" when it comes to a president that has made an unwillingness to bargain with Republicans in Congress a hallmark of his presidency.
What Republicans must do is "double down" on their criticism of this disastrous health care legislation and pledge that, if given control of both houses of Congress, they will do everything they can to defund its enforcement and delay its implementation.
Obamacare is such bad public policy and is so widely despised that the only comparison that truly fits is that of the crazy constitutional amendment that brought our nation prohibition. Americans suffered through that idiotic concept and sent it packing. They will do the same with Obamacare, even if they have to do it one "sinkhole" at a time.
ooooohhh....she looks WEIRD!!!
I thought so too.
If I understand correctly, that district:
1. Voted Obama (2008 AND 2012)
2. Voted Sink in the last Gubernatorial election.
Dems are in some deep shiznizz.
Sink
Weiner
Nostrils Waxman
Love it!
Alex Stink = Just another self serving RAT!
And in November, they'll say a funny thing happened on the way to the Senate.
suckhole is more like it...
But...But...But...San Fran Nan says ,”Not to worry”.
I am stunned there are any that think if we go down this path that it is a winner. The poll just released today has ONitWitCare at it’s highest positive ever. This was a special election in a swing district that the GOP held for, what ... 40 years? The vote was CLOSE. Dems just don’t show up for off year elections much less special elections.
If we create our own reality ... well . . .don’t come whining in 2014 or 2016. I don’t care if I stand alone on this. Running on :everyone hates ONitWitCare will be an unmitigated disaster. No, the GOP will likely not lose the House, but they may not take back the Senate and they sure need it when they will lose 7-10 seats in 2016. And the House will be for SURE in play if Hilda Beast runs.
In short, this theory of what to run on is concocted by those SAME GOPers who gave us Mitt Romney and have failed to win a seemingly winnable Senate majority for 2 elections running. And they have only given us a 17 seat majority in the House.
But hey. What do I know? The GOP elite have done SUCH a wonderful job so far and those Rasmussen polls were SO good in 2012 and 2014 so I MUST be wrong. Right?
*sigh*
Right out of a Dentucreme commercial.
Is it ok to gloat a little more? Stinky Sink is a left wing wacko.
Clarity:
Bill Young was the incumbent, bringer-of-pork republican who opened the seat after his untimely death. All the while, the demographics of the District has been drifting to Dems. The libertarian in the race drew about 4.5% of the vote. Dems outspent the repubs by 3:1. As a governor candidate against republican Rick Scott, she won this very district. Obama won this district twice.
But there IS a powerful good lesson to take from this election.
The GOPe went all out for a conservative candidate they didn't want! ... And won big! ...In a district that was 'lean Democrat'!
The GOPe was very down on the candidate, Jolly, but this was an election they couldn't walk away from. So Jolly got full help from the Party- and conservatives and moderate Republicans ponied up the money (though not as much as the Dems threw at the race) and turned out and elected him.
It's hard for the GOPe to accept that we won by working together, it goes against every 'rule' they know LOL!
You bad ... go to room. He is our IS PRES__ENT, be respectful. </off scold>
<Do I need another tag?>
LOL...
Not much, joe.
Sink is the great granddaughter of one of the original Siamese twins (Chang Buunker).
Very interesting.
I also saw she has a degree in mathematics which is exceptionally rare in a politician.
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