The Democrats: Running on empty-No wonder Gibbs is scared.

The Democrats: Running on empty
By Ken Silverstein

From Dana Milbank:

It would not be accurate to say that Democrats are worried about losing control of the House in November. It would be accurate to say that Democrats are in a screaming panic about losing control of the House in November. The panic threshold was crossed Sunday morning on “Meet the Press,” when White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, “There’s no doubt there are enough seats in play that could cause Republicans to gain control.”

On Tuesday, as Democratic lawmakers limped back into town from a 10-day recess, a grim Steny Hoyer (Md.), the House majority leader, sat at the end of a long conference table in his office and was quizzed by reporters about the Gibbs-induced panic.

Hoyer’s…campaign theme was only slightly better: asking Americans “to focus on whether they want to go back to the failed policies of Bush and the Republican Congress. . . . Employment was the worst performance since Herbert Hoover, and unemployment was.” Proposed bumper sticker: “Vote Democratic. Because Republicans are even worse than we are.”

He could also be heard providing the wisdom that “the budget enforcement resolution” made “the House statutory paygo rule compatible with the statutory paygo rule.” Proposed bumper sticker: “Vote Democratic. We made the House statutory paygo rule compatible with the statutory paygo rule.”

No wonder Gibbs is scared.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071305395.html
http://harpers.org/#hbc-90004774

whether that fool thinks it's good strategy or not, attacking the GOP is the best thing the dems can do. Boehner and McConnell are repulsive. The BP republicans, the racists like Steve King, the golden parachuter Carly Fiorina, they're all vulnerable. Tell the American people what their options are. Fuck Dana Milbank.

their own shadow. Little wonder that an unpleasant fact would make them even more scared.

What is so crazy is if the Democrats SHOWED A LITTLE SPINE, Americans would rally around them by the droves. Christ dancing on a saltine! When (IF?) will they figure that out? Americans disdain weakness, and so far, too many the D side of the aisle show little else.

dems are in trouble, the number one mantra for the MSM ...

The Rs had half the majority in the house and senate and they MSM was parroting "permanent republican majority" ...

i see no reason to fight any longer.
you fight, you win, and then your guys pull off thier masks. and they were the enemy too

I need a tiny violin to play a sad sad song for the loss of morale here. It's so bad when you can't even find the energy to reach the Shift key and have to post in all lowercase.

When we won the House in 2006, I was ecstatic... but then nothing really changed, impeachment for real crimes was off the table and the status quo continued.

When we won everything in 2008, I thought: "now we're cooking; now we'll see action, real change..." but then we got useless attempts at bipartisanship, capitualtion to a vicious repuke minority, more talk, little change and less hope

I know I'll get flamed, but I don't care. The quisling Dems deserve to lose!

Edited to add: Actually, the DLCers (or the likes of Hoyer)and many Senate Dems deserve to lose; and POTUS needs to change himself, his cabinet and his advisors.

What are Republicans running on?

Oh brother.

Not!

With Palin at the wheel, they should be crying.

It is the Senate that is so dysfunction--where we have 'Democrats' like Ben Nelson playing right into the Republican's hands for November.

We need to stand with the House Dems in November. We must not let the Republicans--'Barton, Boehner and Blunt' control the House. Let alone give Darrell Issa subpoena power to go on witch hunts!

in the Senate.

That said, there are a few- Barney Frank being among them, who've- shall we say, overstayed their welcome.

The legislative era really should be known as the Pelosi era rather than the Obama era.

are in the House, particularly many of the Blue Dog seats.

And Milbank knows that.

Not as if we needed any more proof that Milbank is either a tool or the most naive political reporter on the planet, but there it is.

All he said was "there are enough seats in play." Hardly a paniced statement.

I'm glad he said it. It' true and Dems need to realize that if the don't vote in November, the GOP will take control.

44% approval just 16 months in, 40-50 house seats gone in November, senate likely to flip control as well, republican witchunts, subpoenas, and impeachment inquiries all of 2011 and 2012, it's game over for President Obama. The real question now is if he'll even run again for the nomination. He'll probably follow LBJ's model, see how well he does in New Hampshire, and then decide based on that.

This is the very definition of a presidency in crisis, far worse than the media manufactured Lewinsky crisis. How he gets out of it, I have no clue. I mean, the problems are endless. Gibbs needs to be fired first of all. What an asshole. Emmanuel needs to be fired as well. What an asshole again. Geithner needs to go. Summers needs to go. Axelrod is a political lightweight with no clue what he's doing.

The President should keep one trusted confidante, Valerie Jarrett, so that he's not working with a team that he's not familiar with at all, but everyone else needs to go.

They need a new message czar and they need to focus like a laser beam on the economy RELENTLESSLY day after day. Hammer the GOP. Make the public understand that it was the GOP that caused this economic crisis. Hammer the GOP the same way they hammered Kerry and Dukaksis. We need to go Atwater/Rove on them. Remind people how good democratic economic management has been historically. The BP oil spill needs to be ended as well like YESTERDAY.

Honestly, Gibbs created a democratic party civil war with his MTP interview. What kind of an idiot does that?? This is a government in total disarray if I've ever seen one. Where the hell is the President??? Where is his leadership?? MSNBC first read had an article that the W.H. lets Washington control them instead of the other way around. That needs to change pronto.

Here's another indication of the systemic problems:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/434315b2-8ea6-11df-8a67-00144feab49a.html

In Europe and Canada, when the government is close to collapse, they do a cabinet shuffle. President Obama should consider that. A cabinet shuffle might be the first step.

:rofl:

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in excess of $500. Back off dude. I was waiting for this accusation. Just because I can see that this presidency is a walking disaster right now doesn't make me any less of a democrat or a supporter of the President's. Seeing that things need to change and advocating it is what a true supporter does. Singing la-di-da is what a yes-man focused on staying in the boss's good graces does.

So, a 44% approval rating in a Democracy corps poll and in CBS is good news??

Is Gibbs less of a democrat for thinking the dems will lose the house??

Obama's been the most legislatively productive President since FDR and yet somehow his Presidency is a "walking disaster"?

Methinks you're seeing the sky falling when it's actually just raining.

Corp. media feels free to vomit at them. Especially on this site, where people are supposedly politically saavy and supposedly have been paying attention to the corp. media's obvious agenda.

The average Joe doesn't and the average Joe is the one that will vote in November. The media is absolutely disgusting I agree but that's not clearly understood.

as we are are the one's having the discussion. And there are many on this site have conniptions/making hay over these remarks and it tells me either those people are naive, not paying attention or have ulterior motives.

You are drawing your conclusions about Obama's presidency based on what the media is saying, the biased polls etc. It's shaky evidence at best for your "prediction" that Obama's presidency is finished. You've bought either bought into the propoganda hook, line and sinker or you haven't been paying attention or you have some agenda, IMO of course.

But it'd be easy for me to snap out of it. What I want is the Prez with a 51% approval on average, a 2-3 point dem lead on the generic congressional ballot, and Boxer, Feingold, and Murray leading their respective senate races, and I'd be a happy guy. Doesn't take much.

I agree that we should use this website to expose the media lies, that's true. I have just been very frustrated for so long with approval stuck in the 40s. As soon as it averages 50%+1 again, I'll be happy.

Might I add that Presidents Clinton and Reagan were not facing systemic crises when their approval ratings were so low. 42's trouble was mainly due to getting a haircut on the tarmac on AF1 and making people wait and staffing issues while Reagan's trouble was caused by a recession that he deliberately caused. Neither one had 2 wars, an environmental catastrophe, an economy in ruins and racists running amuck going insane that an African American dare lead "their America" to deal with.

Considering the constant withering attacks and negative spin propogated by the corp. media.

My intuition tells me that the Repubs are going to be very, very dissapointed in Nov.

oh wait...no really...oh just never mind:rofl:

Thanks for the facts

The best estimates show them falling short of majority and the Senate is not going to flip either, they can't pull off 10 seats.

Remember his article? What we need to avoid that is BP oil spill stopped ASAP, unemployment down to 9.3% by the first Friday in October with jobs being created, and some republican missteps.

The Republicans didn't win that many seats in 1994, for them to pull something like that off they'd have to win in places that don't ever vote Republican and they aren't anywhere near popular enough to do that. Remember PA-12? That race proved they aren't going to do as good as some people would have us believe.

We need to volunteer in our local elections and contribute to their campaigns even if it is 5.00. It will help to make sure we have democratic Senate and House.



On another note. If you have buy a product, Let's buy American made products

http://www.buyamerican.com/

party morale doesn't do me any good, or any other Democrat.

Heck, many thought electing President Obama was an impossibility.

I plan on staying positive and staying engaged. Reform is possible
and it won't occur without collecting enough voices and pointing them
in the right direction.

Politicians without public support are going to be dreadfully weak.
So if we give President Obama low to no support while he's in office,
don't be surprised if few meaningful things get done.