E.J. Dionne is a liberal columnist. In his piece today, he basically blames high expectations and Republicans for not allowing Democrats to make a more favorable impression with the American people.
Expectations are part of the Democrats' problem. Over the past month or so, congressional Democrats have hemorrhaged support from both ends of the electoral coalition that backed them last November. And both ends had high hopes.and
Middle-of-the-road voters who backed the Democrats don't much like the war, but they also looked to the party of Reid and Pelosi to get things done on political reform, health care, energy, the environment and the economy. Yet the ways of Congress are slow, especially when Republicans have no interest in Democratic success and when President Bush -- with the exception of an immigration bill -- mostly opposes what Democrats would put on his desk. The Democrats can brag about a minimum wage increase. They also passed budget measures on time, a real achievement, but not one that most voters notice.and
Given how tarnished the Republican brand is, the GOP's best strategy is to bring Democrats down with them into the murky depths of public disapproval. This might build support for a third-party candidate in 2008 -- which could help Republicans win by splitting the anti-Bush, anti-system vote. It's still early, but not too early for Democrats to worry about this prospect and to brace themselves for some ugly politics for the rest of the year.Froma Harrop is another liberal columnist. In her piece today, she focuses on the "culture of corruption" in Washington. It's apparent that she wanted to write a hit piece on Republicans. To do so, she has to go back to the last congress and Alaskan Rep. Don Young, the author of the famous "Bridge to Nowhere." Sure, she finishes the piece by mentioning that Sen. Stevens, also of Alaska, is under an FBI probe over bribery of state officials and that his seat is now vulnerable, but still. Perhaps she momentarily forgot that Republicans no longer control congress? Perhaps she forgot about the pork Democrats have included in several bills. Perhaps she forgot about Rep. Jack Murtha's threat to a Republican Congressman on the house floor to cut all his earmarks if he didn't support Murtha's earmarks---a violation of House rules. Perhaps she forgot about the shady dealings that Harry Reid and Barak Obama have been implicated in? Who knows.
Both of these pieces tell me that liberals aren't exactly optimistic about the future. They proclaimed about how the American people decided that Democrats spoke for them, and how they were going to do all of these things that the people demanded from government. Now, six months into their tenure, Congress has a lower approval rating than President Bush, Harry Reid has an approval of only 19%, and Speaker Pelosi has a lower approval rating than Newt Gingrich at the same time during his tenure as Speaker. Polls have shown that people prefer a generic Democrat over a generic Republican for president, but when presented with candidate names, the people prefer the Republican candidate over the Democrat.
You hear so much about how Democrats were elected to get the US out of Iraq, and how the Democrat presidential candidates want to do so. But when you look at what the candidates say, at least with the front runners, they support leaving troops in the area in case things go south. This piece by Karen Hanretty at NRO today talks about this in relation to John Edwards.
So Republicans, buck up. We hear the pundits saying that we are down and out, depressed, hate all of our presidential candidates, blah blah blah. Even if that is correct, apparently we aren't alone.
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