Monday, November 01, 2010
Get ready for beat down
Democrats will take a heckova beating tomorrow, worse than they deserve. They'll give up the congressional seats they grabbed in '06 & especially '08, lose the House, maybe the Senate, though the latter is a longer shot.
Wisconsin is foolish if it throws away Russ Feingold, a great senator who really has tried to reform national politics. Of course, his McCain/Feingold campaign financing reform now has so many loopholes that we don't know who is financing campaigns. & we need to know. We should have a right to know.
When the Repug establishment invited Sarah Palin in & made her a political superstar (& was unable to restrain & control her), it was just a matter of time - two years - until some truly wacky Palin facsimiles arrived - Christine O'Donnell in Delaware & Sharron Angle in Nevada. Angle might win. If she does, Nevada deserves her. Like Alaska, Nevada feeds amply at the federal money trough (much, much better than New Jersey), & Harry Reid, like him or not, knows how to keep that trough filled. I don't think the Repug bosses can control Sharron Angle. In that sense, she might even be good for our politics. She can't do much damage as a freshman senator, but she can make a lot of amusing noise. The Beltway Repug leadership, although delighted to take control of the House, knows that control means it will bear a proportional share of the blame in '12. It will also have to somehow block Palin's presidential ambitions as it weighs the possibilities of a Jeb Bush candidacy, or some other guy who understands what it's actually all about (keeping the trough filled).
President Obama got off the fence too late. Did everybody but him see this coming a year ago? It's wasn't his responsibility to help - upfront or behind the scenes - exiled & ex-Repugs like Charlie Crist & Lincoln Chafee. He could always issue dry, pro-forma endorsements of Democrats from the White House & then stay away. Obama should have been whistle-stopping through America from Day One of his administration, smacking down traditional Democratic targets & worrying less about the bipartisan support he never got for legislation filled with ideas he picked up from Repugs. Americans have little patience for detailed explanations - or rational debate the Repugs smartly declined to have with him anyway. He should have learned from Bill Clinton that no negative allegation from the opposition, however nutty, can go unchallenged.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Wisconsin is foolish if it throws away Russ Feingold, a great senator who really has tried to reform national politics. Of course, his McCain/Feingold campaign financing reform now has so many loopholes that we don't know who is financing campaigns. & we need to know. We should have a right to know.
When the Repug establishment invited Sarah Palin in & made her a political superstar (& was unable to restrain & control her), it was just a matter of time - two years - until some truly wacky Palin facsimiles arrived - Christine O'Donnell in Delaware & Sharron Angle in Nevada. Angle might win. If she does, Nevada deserves her. Like Alaska, Nevada feeds amply at the federal money trough (much, much better than New Jersey), & Harry Reid, like him or not, knows how to keep that trough filled. I don't think the Repug bosses can control Sharron Angle. In that sense, she might even be good for our politics. She can't do much damage as a freshman senator, but she can make a lot of amusing noise. The Beltway Repug leadership, although delighted to take control of the House, knows that control means it will bear a proportional share of the blame in '12. It will also have to somehow block Palin's presidential ambitions as it weighs the possibilities of a Jeb Bush candidacy, or some other guy who understands what it's actually all about (keeping the trough filled).
President Obama got off the fence too late. Did everybody but him see this coming a year ago? It's wasn't his responsibility to help - upfront or behind the scenes - exiled & ex-Repugs like Charlie Crist & Lincoln Chafee. He could always issue dry, pro-forma endorsements of Democrats from the White House & then stay away. Obama should have been whistle-stopping through America from Day One of his administration, smacking down traditional Democratic targets & worrying less about the bipartisan support he never got for legislation filled with ideas he picked up from Repugs. Americans have little patience for detailed explanations - or rational debate the Repugs smartly declined to have with him anyway. He should have learned from Bill Clinton that no negative allegation from the opposition, however nutty, can go unchallenged.
Labels: THE election
