Although Outpost contributor Skip MacLure already posted some thoughts [2] on this, but it's too good a topic to pass up.
As noted, Gallup's new poll [3] has Obama's job approval among self identified independents down to a new low of just 38%, (down from 56% a year ago). And given that the Democrats running for Congress this fall have the same (D) by their names...and have been an integral part of implementing the policies that helped create that job "approval", they're heading for trouble in November.
Of course, at least in public, the Obamanots will excuse themselves, rationalize away, and pretty much blame anything or anyone but themselves [4].
White House senior adviser David Axelrod said that the criticism of Obama as a big-spending liberal grows out of decisions the president felt he had to make to prevent a depression. "We were forced to do things from the start to deal with this economic crisis that helped create a false narrative about spending and deficits that's had some impact on independent voters," Axelrod said. "And that's something we have to work on."...
So it's not that their policies are bad and caused anything that any rationale or understanding voter would have a problem with. It doesn't have anything at all to do with the fact that this is a center-right country where conservatives make up a solid plurality of all voters...even among independents. No, it's just a perception problem. Yeah, keep whistling past that graveyard buddy.
From another Democrat:
"Democrats just have to pull their races down out of the national atmospherics," said Democratic strategist Jim Jordan. "As trite as it sounds, we have to make our elections into real choices . . . We have to frame this as a choice about the basic direction of the country. The Bush years and his disastrous policies and noxious politics are still plenty fresh in voters' minds."
And of course here we go with the Bush bashing again. You would think for all of their criticism of Bush and the fact that they used that as the major component of their big win in 2008 that they would have a real understanding of just "what" is was about Bush that caused a majority to hand them the keys to DC. (You know, the big spending...letting the Republican Congress run wild with the credit card, etc..) But no, they focus elsewhere, because if they focused on the real problem people in the middle had with Bush, they wouldn't be able to push the expensive, big government policies they and their base love so much.
Their problem is what many voters rebelled against (or stayed home on Election Day to protest) is exactly what the Dems have been delivering in spades.
So basically, the Democrat strategy revolves around either trying to distract voters away from national issues, or pretending to be something their not...or maybe both.
Good luck with all that.
