A Spanking in November

The Democrats are sensing that they're going to lose the House in November. Mr. Obama, in full campaign mode, has already singled out Republican minority leader John Boner, er, Boehner (R-Ohio) in his attack speeches - you know, 'cause everyone knows who he is... and assumes that Nancy won't be running the chamber any longer. That's 39 chairs to 'flip' the house. The American Political Science Association predicts 50.

The dailybeast.com ran an article about how President Obama himself can make a difference between now and Election Day. Mellen looks at the impact of presidential campaign appearances on behalf of House candidates in midterm elections. (...) The improvement has to do with the so-called enthusiasm gap. The dire predictions for the Democrats in November don’t necessarily assume a defection of voters from the Democratic Party to the GOP. Rather, Republican voters, riled up by being out of power, are more likely to turn out in the midterms; Democrats, resting on their laurels after the 2008 landslide, are much more likely to sit this one out.

The Republicans and the Independents don't care about 'being out of power,' they're opposed to how the country is being run. It's a policy - not racial - or some ridiculous power grab. Typical, there's not one thought to why the Democrats are going to lose or why the TEA party exists, or even what they're saying. It's just easier to lift their fingers and laugh at them.

Sending Obama on the campaign trail will be the best thing they could do - for the Republicans. Sure he might spark a little more enthusiasm in the Democrat faithful, but it has historically gotten more Republicans to the polls.

But it's the independents who have been thrown under the bus by the Democrats - not the other way around. The electoral problem facing Democrats isn't that they won't vote, it's that independents have abandoned the Democrats wholesale.... because the Independents feel duped. Of course the Republicans could still lose their elections - especially if they offer no value or fail to recognize that the voters don't want a party of 'no' - but a party that would halt what angry voters see as a power grab by the remaining Democrats who are taking what they can off the sinking ship.

I'd like to see someone roll up their sleeves and start bailing.