July 13, 2010

By Dave Andrusko

Good evening. Bumper crop of stories tonight. In Part Two NRLC President Dr. Wanda Franz rebuts the absurd notion that there is no such thing as post abortion syndrome. In Part Three we have concrete evidence ObamaCare will pay for insurance plans that cover any legal abortion. Over at National Right to Life News Today (www.nationalrighttolifenewstoday.org), Wesley Smith talks about what he is learning about a new euthanasia bill in South Australia; I explain the uniqueness of National Right to Life News; and John Smeaton welcomes a turn of events in Northern Ireland. Please send all of your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are now following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha.

"Obama's overall standing puts him at about the same place President Bill Clinton was in the summer of 1994, a few months before Republicans captured the House and Senate in an electoral landslide."
     -- From "Democrats' bumpy ride to November," by Jonathan Capehart, which appeared in the Washington Post's "PostPartisan" section today.

Everybody who follows politics knows that we are always caught between competing "truths"--what appears to have been generally the case historically and the fact that every election is individual and different--which can either largely offset each other or multiply their impact.

For example, it is almost an iron rule that the first off-year elections for a new President will cost his party seats in Congress. This does not bode well for Democrats, as the quote from Jonathan Capehart suggests. But it is also true that there is a general mood of "throw the rascals" out which, you would think, might put a damper on Republican gains.

That's why the Post's story by Dan Balz and Jon Cohen today--" Confidence in Obama reaches new low, Washington Post/ABC News poll finds"-- is so helpful. Let me highlight some of the key results.

As we written here often, based on the daily polling by Rasmussen, confidence in pro-abortion President Barack Obama has been falling for months and months and months. It's now at a new low, according to the Post/ABC News poll. "[N]early six in 10 voters say they lack faith in the president to make the right decisions for the country, and a clear majority once again disapproves of how he is dealing with the economy." Confidence is even lower for Congress, although Obama is making up--or rather losing--ground.

In addition while "Democrats nationally remain on the defensive as they seek to retain both houses of Congress this fall," Balz and Cohen write, "Registered voters are closely divided on the question of whether they will back Republicans or Democrats in House races. Among those who say they are sure to cast ballots in November, 49 percent side with the GOP and 45 percent with Democrats."

But there are components that paint a much grimmer portrait for Democrats, whose leadership is relentlessly pro-abortion as is much of its membership on the Hill.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

"Overall, a slim majority of all voters [51% to 43%] say they would prefer Republican control of Congress so that the legislative branch would act as a check on the president's policies." Okay, but politics is not about everyone but about everyone who votes.

"Those most likely to vote in the midterms prefer the GOP over continued Democratic rule by a sizable margin of 56 percent to 41 percent." That is a staggering 15% gap. This takes on even more significance for the Democrats (who have strong majorities in the House and Senate) when "Just 26 percent of registered voters say they are inclined to support their representative in the House this fall; 62 percent are inclined to look for someone new."

When you are in power and virtually all indices are negative, one tried-and-true campaign strategy is to warn your supporters that your opponents, who (of course) are responsible for everything that is wrong, will be back in power unless your supporters really gear up. And the White House is periodically sending out that S.O.S. to Democrats.

The problem is it's not working, as the Post's Greg Sargent pointed out yesterday. Sargent began by referring to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs who over the weekend "dropped a political bomb, saying that Republicans just may take back the House. His comments are being widely interpreted as an urgent warning designed to get rank and file Dems to grasp the stakes of the midterms once and for all." So what is the rank and file Democrat's response

"The latest polling shows that the 'enthusiasm gap' remains the same, with Republicans far more excited about voting than Dems are. In other words, Dem scaremongering about the GOP takeover doesn't yet appear to be revving up Dems to turn out this fall."

Sargent has his own formula for Democrats rebounding but ends with this: "How do you make rank and file Dems care about the midterms? It's unclear that yelling about how mean and nasty Republicans are is going to cut it."

Part Two
Part Three