Democrats Must Do Better

It is becoming apparent to those who watch closely that Pres. Barack Obama's grip on the public imagination is weakening. The report referenced here has more to say about all this.

As related here over the last year or so, Mr. Obama has some clear deficits. Most importantly, at a time when we need an FDR-style program we are getting Woodrow Wilson, instead. Wilson still garners a certain amount of respect as a pragmatic idealist, committed to fighting for U.S. participation in the League of Nations against long odds. But he ended up being a Democratic war President, after campaigning on his record of "[keeping] us out of war." The comparison of Obama to Wilson is less apt when it comes to the economy in the sense that there was not a recognized financial melt-down in the teens as there is today. Still, there was strife, and Wilson was no particular friend to the average worker.

The most kind thing that can be said about Pres. Obama is that under our economic system, it would have been hard to imagine a true reformer being nominated by either of the major political parties. Think back to early 2007 when Democrats had just taken control of Congress and a certain optimism was in the air.

Poll numbers for Obama have been weakening lately. We shall see whether this trend continues. And there are still all those pesky lawsuits regarding his citizenship and eligibility to serve under the Constitution.

Most worrisome are indications most people would vote for the Republican in their district if Congressional elections were held now. This is an absurd situation, except when one considers how weak is the Democratic economic program. Leadership from Congressional Democrats is not helped, of course, by a President who clings to illusions of market magic. And his comment recently that the American people should be patient was dangerously close to Marie Antoinette's flippantly uncaring comment, "Let them eat cake."

The U.S. has a history of simply swinging back and forth between Republican and Democratic control with little change in actual policies as they emerge from the legislative process. The one major exception was the FDR years as they progressed. In order for the Democrats to regain the initiative they must do better in terms of creating a true national health care program ("single-payer"), as well as restoring or creating citizen control over the mechanisms of credit. Most of this has been dealt with in the past on this web log. For now, Democrats should be very worried.

The Republicans, meanwhile, have terrible ideas on the economy -- ideas which have been proven unworkable in the past, specifically "trickle-down" economics. In addition, today's Republican Party is a party dominated by far-right kooks who have no idea how to bring together a national coalition to support needed programs. Plus, Republicans, including Sarah Palin, would support an evil and scary expansion of the security state, taking us truly into a new dark age of rule by fear.

So it is a critical moment. There are definitely signs of hope, as in Democratic resistance to the zanier aspects of the Obama program as advocated by White House incompetents such as Larry Summers and Peter Orszag. Only time will tell whether these signs of hope are harbingers of a true change. Any Democrats who openly break with the market-oriented approach to this crisis are to be warmly congratulated and encouraged.

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Note: Rasmussen Reports has been fairly accurate over the last years. However, it seems to me to lean slightly Republican, if there is a lean at all. And certainly Dick Morris has baggage. However, I find his views here to be reasonable.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_dick_morris/bam_s_slipping_grip_on_the_public