Danger!

We also need a damn good campaign strategy that all Dem candidates can use and we need team work, team work, team work. The Dems need to be on tv bragging about everything that’s been done in 2009 and how the Republicans sat and did NOTHING.

This could get the ball rolling. This is exactly what I was talking about in Bob’s previous post. From an articl on firedoglake.com today regarding the Republican obstructionizm. Keep in mind this took place last week at NYU!”I just saw Senator Sheldon Whitehouse speak at a Brennan Center lecture at NYU Law School. Whitehouse is an excellent speaker, a committed defender of the Constitution, and a major badass.Do you know what he told us? Out of thirty-six weeks in session this year, the United States Senate has had four weeks of working sessions. Four weeks. What happened to the other thirty-two weeks? They were sucked up by Republican filibusters. That’s right: Republican filibusters. Remember the people who hate the filibuster so much that they were willing to “Go nuclear”? Them. There have been ninety filibusters this year and there’s no end in sight. Ninety. I sat there wondering why the Democrats had not gotten this message out to American citizens (because you have to admit that “Republicans have obstructed the United States Senate’s work for thirty-two weeks this year” is a pretty compelling message) when Whitehouse told us that the Democrats have realized that they need to take that message to the people (and that at least some of them are discussing changing the filibuster rules).”How pissed off do you think the American people would be if they really understood this? It really pisses me off! That and the extra 30 days it took to pass the unemployment extensions by a vote of 90-0. I’d love to get a look at some of the other legislation that was held up. Where are the “reporters” who are sifting through this story? If this doesn’t get you excitement and votes from your base, I don’t know what else could!

Hey Rox, I know that new info pisses ME off for sure. And “reporters” is right, they are useless. The WH and the Dems will have to go around the MSM once again to get their campaign message out to voters.

Here’s another take that I found interesting by Dr. Biobrain. I haven’t verified it but he usually knows what he’s talking about so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. Quoting in full here:

Via Atrios, we get more clueless political commentary, this time from CQ Politics:

A lack of competitive open-seat House races in 2010 could complicate Republican efforts to fully maximize a favorable national environment and make large seat gains after back-to-back elections where the political winds were blowing in the opposite direction.

So far, 18 members have announced they are not seeking re-election in 2010 and are running for other office — but only six of those races are currently considered competitive. No member has yet announced an outright retirement, which is unusual; at this point in the 2008 cycle, 14 members had announced their retirement and five others were running for Senate.

And first off, as Atrios asks, what current favorable national environment are they talking about? Yes, the conservative base is in an anti-Obama frenzy, but seeing as how they’re all scary freaks, I fail to see how this is a good thing for Republicans.

And another thing, the article is misleading in that they mean to say that only six of the eighteen are Democratic districts, while the other twelve are open seats for Republican districts. In fact, based upon what it says elsewhere in the article, there are currently only three open seats in Democratic districts that are competitive for Republicans. Three. The basis for CQ’s entire article rests upon three seats. Meanwhile, it mentions three Republican seats that Dems might easily pick up.

In other words, twice as many Republicans are retiring as Democrats, and both sides look like they can easily poach three seats from the other. And from this, we’re to imagine that the political winds strongly favor Republicans and it’s 1994 all over again; all evidence to the contrary.

Twelve is Bigger than Six

But even by the standards of the article, if only six of eighteen open election seats are competitive for Republicans, that would kind of indicate a bad thing for Republicans, as it would be an indicator that they’re not very popular. And seeing as how this follows up five special elections this year in which Democrats won open seats, including a traditionally Republican district in New York, there would seem to be some indication that things aren’t doing so well for Republicans. And when you throw in the long series of polls which show Republicans in the basement, it appears that Republicans are still relying on smoke & mirrors to appear strong and are set to lose their third straight election.

The article mentions the high number of retirements in 1994 and 2008, without understanding that the reason for the high number of retirements was because incumbents felt weak. The political climate caused the retirements; it wasn’t coincidental to them. And conversely, if there are few retirements, it would indicate that incumbents feel strong. Even in the section I quoted above it mentions that this is a much different retirement situation than in 2008, in which nineteen Congressional retirements had been officially announced by this point, while none have been announced this year. And again, that would be a bad sign for Republicans and indicate that the political winds do not, in fact, favor them.

Yet the CQ article seems to see these as unrelated events, as if it’s purely bad luck that Republicans aren’t very competitive. Of course they’re popular, because they say they’re popular; too bad voters don’t seem to realize it yet. And for as much as Republicans in the article insist that 2010 will be another 1994, anyone paying attention knows that these people always think it’s 1994.

And of course, even the victory of ’94 was vastly overrated. Not only have Republicans not recovered from the excesses of their hubris, but they still haven’t hit bottom yet. As a reminder, they had losses in the two congressional elections following ’94, despite Republican predictions to the contrary. Perhaps after another defeat they’ll finally enter a true “wilderness” phase and figure out what they’re doing wrong. But more likely, they’ll just double-down on the crazy and insist that their luck is changing.

Great article Broadway Carl! It’s as if they’re living in a parallel universe where it’s always sunny for Republicans. If the Dems can get some shit done and point out what they couldn’t get done and most importantly, why, they’ll have a pretty jacked up base and perhaps some new converts who see that the only way to really affect change is to change that fucked up filibuster rule. And if you can’t do this with a 60 seat majority in the Senate than, you’re fucking useless too!

Which Republicans did they poll? The 20% who are willing to identify themselves as Republicans? So does that mean that 81% of the 20% of Americans are definitely voting Republican? That is 16%. Unless all the independents go Republican, that doesn’t seem like a problem.

The base is pissed. He needs to get them back on track. Escalating in Afghanistan is definately NOT the way to do it.All hell will break lose if he sends in 34,000 more of our people to die for NOTHING.He is in a difficult position, but caving in to McCrystal and the Military Industrial Complex is not popular among progressives and democrats. I am anxious to hear the war strategy and the exit plan.If there is one I mean.

Tough sell is right. Impossible really. I opposed the Iraq surge but my attitude after it was approved was, ok, this is our last shot, if it doesn’t work, we have to withdraw. Of course, the fine print of that strategy didn’t have as much to do with the troops as it did with paying off insurgents.The strategy that makes sense to me if we do send in more troops is to bribe the warlords to side with us rather than the Taliban. If it doesn’t work, we need to admit defeat and get the hell out. I think Obama was hoping to put this off until after health care was passed but it obviously won’t happen. Being the US President means making tough choices.

I’m with Olivia. 80% of the few people willing to claim to be republicans is not that scary.

The “base” is not “pissed” about a damned thing. The Democrats have always been insufferably indolent when it comes to mid-term elections. It is the pretentiously wonkish and easily forgetful that are busy trying to be political sages like the media swine pundits. If anything, the true reason Democrats need to fear in 2010 is because the entire corrupt fourth estate will be aiming to absolve Republicons, as a whole, to the detriment of Democrats, old and new. This is becoming more and more obvious as this year winds down, and “Stupid Story disparaging Pres. Obama in a latent fashion #120 – The Party Crashers” is prominently on display. This technique of discussing scuttlebutt pertaining to Democrats, along with the promotion of Republicon boneheaded accusation-peddling will spell disaster for Dems if they don’t have people out there actually informing their acquaintances, neighbors, family, and online buddies. The media swine truly are in the process of laying all the GOPhuckups of the better part of the decade on the laps of the Democrats. Even the bullshit regarding Hassan, political correctness, etc. is designed to distract from the fact that the Repubs were so hell-bent on cementing their little neocon legacy for 8 years that they let a “terrorist” slip into the military undetected. Besides, who the hell worries more about the content of every-goddamned-thing their beady eyes can witness, but so-called “social” conservatives?It’s as simple as this: STOP. LETTING. THESE. MEDIA. SWINE. DISTRACTIONS. DISCOURAGE. YOU. PEOPLE!Rightwing mental degenerates like being trained to hunt like pit bulls at the dog fights with sensational, easily-discredited lies and demented political stances. They think bluffing to everyone (including themselves) about how serious they’ll take someone like Mrs. Palin in 2012 actually scares “liberals” or anyone that voted for our current president. The Republicons have nothing left but to pretend that they’re crazy, and as usual, Democrats and actual sane people both in and out fold, believing that they’re outnumbered and outmaneuvered. WE ARE NOT!