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Political Landscape
Littered with Bad Numbers for Pro-Abortion Democrats Part Two of Three By Dave Andrusko
A report that came out today from American University's well-respected Center for the Study of the American Electorate offers on-the-ground documentation to illustrate that the greater enthusiasm has already manifested itself. Looking at 35 primaries held before September 1, director Curtis Gans says that "for the first time since 1930, more Republican voters showed up to vote in statewide primaries this year than Democrats -- another sign of the huge challenges facing President Obama's party in this year's elections," according to USA Today. There were a whopping four million more Republicans voting than Democrats. "It isn't surprising that Republican turnout increased," Gans said in a statement. "But what's likely to prove telling is the lower participation of the Democrats, the first tangible demonstration of what polls have been showing -- a distinct lack of enthusiasm among the Democratic rank and file." As reported originally in the New York Times, Democrats are already making political life-and-death decisions at a time of deep voter skepticism toward the party that controls the White House and both house of Congress. House Democratic leaders "are preparing a brutal triage of their own members in hopes of saving enough seats to keep a slim grip on the majority," according to Jeff Zeleny and Carl Husle. This is done in light of a raft of crushing numbers including some that have not gotten the attention they deserve. Writing on the reliably-Democratic New Republic blog, William Galston (who served under President Clinton) points out several important considerations that can be gleaned from recent polling numbers. First, "The share of the electorate that thinks Obama's program is making the economy better has fallen by one-quarter--9 percentage points--in the past five months. As a result, his better/worse rating on economic policy now is -3 (versus +13 in April) while the Republicans' rating stands at +5." Second, referring to two results from a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Galston observes, "This is a double dose of bad news for Democrats. First, the entire premise of their fall campaign is that a vote for Republicans means returning to the bad old days of the Bush administration. Unfortunately for them, most Americans disagree. Unless voters can be persuaded that their assessment of today's Republicans is mistaken, the Democrats' attack seems fated to fall flat. Second: As we have seen, the electorate tends to believe that continuing Obama's economic program would do more harm than good. Unfortunately, they also believe by a 2 to 1 margin that if they leave Congress in Democrats' hands, Obama's program is what they'll get." Third, more and more the electorate says it wants to give newcomers a shot. No wonder the headline of Galston's piece is "The Second Coming of 1994, by the Numbers," the year Democrats got crunched. One other observation. ObamaCare proponents not only denied the undeniable--that it is pro-abortion and pro-rationing--they've also offered the economically implausible argument that ObamaCare would reduce costs. The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that "Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1% and 9% to pay for extra benefits required under the law, according to filings with state regulators," JANET ADAMY reported. "These and other insurers say Congress's landmark refashioning of U.S. health coverage, which passed in March after a brutal fight, is causing them to pass on more costs to consumers than Democrats predicted." This, she added [unnecessarily, it would seem] is "complicating Democrats' efforts to trumpet their signature achievement before the midterm elections." Please send your comments on Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha. |
When
Democrats look out across the bleak electoral landscape, among
the developments that is most distressing is the so-called
"enthusiasm gap." Every poll taken shows that those who say they
will vote Republican are much more gung-ho about November 2 than
are those who say they will vote Democratic.