For parties, the soul-searching begins. 'Do people think we're tending to the things they care about

The question is valid.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/04/AR2009110404833.html?hpid=topnews


For parties, the soul-searching begins
'Do people think we're tending to the things they care about?'

By Michael D. Shear and Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 5, 2009

Democrats on Capitol Hill began a nervous debate Wednesday about the course President Obama has set for their party, with some questioning whether they should emphasize job creation over some of the more ambitious items on the president's agenda.

The conversations came as White House officials insisted that the party's gubernatorial defeats in Virginia and New Jersey had few implications for Obama's standing or for Democratic prospects in the 2010 midterm elections.

But moderate and conservative Democrats took a clear signal from Tuesday's voting, warning that the results prove that independent voters are wary of Obama's far-reaching proposals and mounting spending, as well as the growing federal debt. Liberal lawmakers, meanwhile, said the party's shortcoming came in moving too slowly on health-care reform and other items that would satisfy a base becoming disenchanted with the failure to deliver rapid change in government.

Voters in both states cited the economy as by far their top concern, and many lawmakers said the outcomes were a blunt wake-up call to put the issue front and center.

"The question is, do people think we're tending to the things they care about?" said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) as he left a meeting of Senate leaders. He said there was palpable concern among his colleagues Wednesday that the main agenda items Democrats are pursuing -- health care and climate change -- resonate very little with voters focused on finding or keeping jobs.



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But there were clear signs that the landscape has changed for Democrats in the past year. Independents, who were crucial to Obama's election, swung dramatically to Republicans in both Virginia and New Jersey. If that pattern holds a year from now, Democratic lawmakers in swing districts could find themselves losing reelection battles.

The results left lawmakers less sanguine than the president's ever-confident advisers. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D) said the results in his state and elsewhere have "somewhat of a chilling effect, potentially, on the agenda."

Connolly, who provided a detailed briefing on the results Wednesday morning to the 35 freshmen House Democrats, focused on what he called a "depressed Democratic base." Voters in the Old Dominion who had sided with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) last November showed up in greater numbers Tuesday than those who voted for Obama last year, Connolly said he stressed to his colleagues.

"I concluded from last night, we've got to pass health care," Connolly said, adding that his message is: "Make sure I give Democrats something to be excited about."

Steve Elmendorf, a veteran Democratic strategist who was a top congressional aide when Democrats were chased from control of the House in a 1994 GOP landslide, said Wednesday that lawmakers are far less complacent today than they were 15 years ago.

"They need to pay attention to it," Elmendorf said. "Voters spoke, and I think the message they sent was they care about the economy and they care about jobs. ....................

Elmendorf said it was a "big deal" that the Democratic gubernatorial candidates lost independents, who he said were "a key to Obama's victory. They are a key to the Democrats' strength as a party."

Calls for more action

But many of the party's leading progressives echoed the idea that the elections showed the only way to build toward victory is to aggressively push the agenda items envisioned in January. ...........

"It's a matter of tangibles being delivered," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "Victory breeds victory." ......................

Sadly, though, you are quite correct--the parties care more about what they can make us think are our chief concerns than they do about those concerns.

case, will the Dem conservative/moderates make a case for little reform? weaker than what is already on the table?

as long as the overwhelming majority of our politicians are the career sort who readily sell their votes to the highest bidder. These folks are only concerned with telling you what they believe you wish to hear. It's delivering rhetoric of appeasement while they actually implement the will of the most wealthy who have paid them to do so.

is every single campaign being treated as if it was the presidential campaign. I know that it's not realistic but the Obama campaign machinery needs to be turned into a Democratic party movement. If not in 4 to 8 years we'll be right back to where we started.

It also wouldn't hurt if our politicans stood up for something. Only a few seem to be really passionate about what they want.

jobs is really dealt with. They need to be focusing on a solid PO bill