I only write diaries when I feel I have something to say that isn't already being said on DKos. And that's rare. I have no hope of making the rec list. My real hope is that one of the successful diarists here will consider what I have to say and move forward without me.
If the Dems lose control of the House in the midterms, I will be more than heartsick. I'll be cryin' in a bucket -- a big bucket -- for a long time.
I'm no clairvoyant, and the American voters never cease to surprise the heck out of me. So I'm not going to tell you what is going to happen in the midterms. I'm getting dizzy from the conflicting polls and opinions:
Charlie Cook
In my view, Democrats have been in a free fall since summer, and unless something significant changes, they are headed toward the losses of the magnitude we saw in the midterm elections of 1958, 1966, 1974, 1994, and 2006. One difference between this year and 1994 and 2006 is that the party in power started developing serious problems more than a year ahead of the election.
And courtesy of DemFromCT in Your Abbreviated Pundit Roundup:
Andrew Kohut
With all the gloom and doom these days, the Democrats may be talking themselves into a crisis. While there is every reason to believe that the party is in trouble and will lose seats this year, there is no solid data that would justify a view shared by many here in Washington that the Democrats are destined to lose control of the House. This certainly could happen, but it is really too early to jump to that conclusion.
The usual Democratic midterm GOTV seems to me to be inadequate. We need a bigger, better plan. We need a couple of the best and the brightest to come up with a masterpiece of excitement that will get Dems to the polls in November. From one who is far from the best and the brightest, here are my humble, yet heart-felt thoughts:
- The Democrats absolutely have to start moving ahead without the Republicans to implement the changes we voted for. Obama won the presidency, and if Dems think that voters don't want the agenda he campaigned on to be implemented, they are a seriously confused bunch. They must stop listening to the pundits and the conservative talking points as if they are presenting any kernel of reality. Pundits are trying to keep their jobs by getting people excited, and Republicans are trying to stay in office. Ignore the crap!!! Implement the agenda we voted for! The voters will be thrilled. I promise!
- One of the biggest problems we have in the functioning of the federal government is the constant change of the party in power. Democrats need to be educated that they can't vote only once every four years or they will not get what they want. The President of the United States is not a dictator. We have checks and balances in this country, which means citizens need to stay in the game. Somehow, the Democratic party must get this across to our voters! You voted for Obama, but now you have to go back to the polls and vote for Democrats so that President Obama can implement his agenda!
- We need the Democratic leadership to speak directly to the American voters and tell them: "Midterms are crucial. We have had fewer than two years to implement a tremendously ambitious agenda, and we need more time. You must go to the polls in November to grant us more time." But, returning to Point 1, the voters will only listen if the Democrats start moving forward with a simple majority. This is a democracy, yet we are playing a minority-rules game. Democratic leadership has to understand that they look like mice playing that game. I understand that leadership may be worried about the demise of the filibuster, but the Republicans have already destroyed it as a legitimate tool of democracy, and voters will not get excited about supporting a bunch of mice! If the leadership can't stomach reconciliation just for the sake of implementing the Democratic agenda, hopefully they can at least do it to save their political power. Let go of the filibuster. Just let it go.
- We need a coordinated plan with a name that is not GOTV. We need a single package that voters can look at and decide, yes, I will go to the polls in November for this.
Thanks for reading people. I hope this diary can make a difference.