Meltdown

CNSNews.com
Thursday, August 12, 2010

By Rich Galen



The White House is in a full-scale political melt-down. All the economic news is bad:


-- Unemployment is stuck at 9.5 percent (or 16.5 percent if you include "discouraged" workers)'


-- The trade deficit for June was $49.9 billion, the largest since October 2008'


-- The Commerce Department estimated on July 30 that the economy expanded at a 2.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter, but that was before the trade gap numbers which may well cause Commerce to revise the GDP downward.


-- That led the Fed to release a statement saying that: "The pace of economic recovery is likely to be more modest in the near term than had been anticipated."


-- All of which led the Dow to drop by 260.56 points (1.22%) in yesterday's trading.

The political news isn't much better for President Obama.

-- The four most recent national polls show the President's approve/disapprove rating at an average of 44%-51%. (Only the Pew Poll showed the President in plus territory, but even at that he was below 50 percent approval).


-- According to NBC's John Harwood: "Most Americans would go along with temporarily extending the Bush tax cuts for all taxpayers, including the wealthy, until the economy recovers, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey has found."


-- Democratic candidates -- from those running for Congress to those running for governor -- would rather be caught swimming nude on a beach in the Bahamas than be seen with President Obama by their constituents.


-- Senior House Democrats Maxine Waters and Charlie Rangel are facing ethics trials which will begin only six weeks before the mid-term elections.


-- White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs this week lashed out at "professional Liberals" who are not being as supportive of Obama as the WH staff believes they should be.


-- That led to a blogger in the Left Wing "Center for Media and Democracy" website to write: "The progressive left is, rightfully, up in arms over the lack of integrity President Barack Obama has shown across the gamut of burning contemporary political issues. These include, but are not limited to issues such as war, health care, secrecy, warrantless wiretapping, and environmental issues, among many others."

If conservatives had lashed out against George W. the way Liberals are having their way with Barack H. less than three months before a mid-term, it would have been cause for screaming headlines in all 23 daily newspapers still in existence in America: "Base to Bush: Get With Our Program or Get Out!"

Before you start polishing your resume to send in to the new Republican majority in the House, consider this: Voters in mid-terms tend to be more ideologically driven than voters in Presidential elections.

For most people, voting is not an intellectual exercise; it is an emotional expression.

The Wall Street Journal poll release yesterday shows Congress with an approval rating (if you can call it that) of 21-72 and 60 percent rate Congress' performance as "below average" or "one of the worst."

You would think, what with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid running the side show on Capitol Hill, that the electorate would be giddy with the prospect of the GOP taking control.

Not so fast. 33 percent of the respondents of the WSJ poll hold a "very" or "somewhat" positive view of Democrats; but only 24 percent have those same feelings about Republicans.

What does that tell us? The Dems have done about as much damage to themselves as they can do. The GOP doesn't have to prove that the Democrats have failed.

What Republicans have to do between now and November 2 is to give people a reason to feel good about voting for the Republican candidate for Governor, Senator, Congress, State Legislature, or Mayor.

Republican candidates for Congress have to win a huge percentage of the seats in play for the GOP to take control of the House. If they don't come up with a coherent message, voters may well decide to punish Republican incumbents as well as Democrats.

Only a relatively few "bad surprises" in November could tip the balance back to the Democrats and turn the election of 2010 into a meltdown of GOP hopes.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Lots of Links including to the WSJ polling data. Also a two-part Mullfoto and a Catchy Caption which will make you shake your head.