Today's Washington Post column is from former dem pollsters and so-called "moderate" democrats Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell (the far left really hates these guys, BTW). They speak of the importance of Independent swing voters in November and how Obama & The Dems had better do some drastic refocusing lest they wish to face massive losses in the November midterm elections. Here's two excerpts:"The swing voters, who are key to the fate of the Democratic Party, care most about three things: reigniting the economy, reducing the deficit and creating jobs. These voters are outraged by the seeming indifference of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats, who they believe wasted a year on health-care reform. These voters will not tolerate more diversion from their pressing economic concerns. They view the Obama administration as working systematically to protect the interests of public-sector employees and organized labor -- by offering specific benefits such as pension protection and tax reductions at the expense of all taxpayers."
"Winning over swing voters will require a bold, new focus from the president and his party. They must adopt an agenda aimed at reducing the debt, with an emphasis on tax cuts, while implementing carefully crafted initiatives to stimulate and encourage job creation. This is the agenda that largely motivated the Clinton administration from 1995 through 2000 and that led to a balanced budget and welfare reform. It promoted a modest degree of social welfare spending. This agenda is enormously popular with the electorate and could eventually turn around Democratic fortunes. Democrats can avoid the electoral bloodbath we predicted before passage of the health-care bill, but in one way: through a bold commitment to fiscal discipline and targeted fiscal stimulus of the private sector and entrepreneurship."
Schoen and Caddell make some great points, but I think that trying to give advice to the tone deaf is always going to be a futile endeavor. "Fiscal discipline"? Sorry, but I'll believe that when I see it -- frankly, from either party.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/15/AR2010041504131.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/15/AR2010041504131.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Posts
Exactly! Fat chance that the representatives in Washington will suddenly become fiscally responsible. Even if "they did" it's a very good bet that it would just be a SHOW.
ReplyDeleteI'm so tired of Washington shift-changing to do ANYthing just to get re-elected.
What about ACTUAL GOVERNING?? Sheesh.
David
Agreed there David. This stuff infects the politicians of both parties. I am often criticized on blogs and messageboards when I proclaim "vote ALL of them out," which might seem on its face like some mindless populist mantra. But $hit: What are any of these people positively accomplishing? The repubs are in power, and we get huge fiscal non-constraint -- then the dems come into power, and we see that sad situation multiplied manifold. There are SO MANY issues out there in the political world that I just don't care about that much, but the BS earmark spending, and the monstrous federal deficits and debt that these 2 parties have been running up in recent years absolutely concern and SCARE me. This stuff HAS to be reigned in -- Through serious budget cuts and ruffle-the-feathers cutbacks. This is no time for any tax cuts, but also no time for any tax increases. This is the time for big cuts in the budget and scope of our federal government, no matter how unpopular some of those cuts might be. I wish I had more brethren in these sentiments. The dems and repubs sure ain't cutting it.
ReplyDelete