"Republicans worry about reelection"

[welshTerrier2]

this article in some ways may be very encouraging to Democrats ... the laundry list of massive republican failures enumerated in the article is truly staggering ...

but the article may not go far enough in analyzing the anger of voters ... most Americans are clearly disappointed in seeing failure after failure ... a very recent survey of consumer confidence just hit a 13 year low ... as the party in power, republicans have plenty to worry about ...

but elections are not held in a vacuum ... it's easy to understand that republicans, as a party, will be held responsible for the failures of the last 5 years ... but elections are one candidate versus another candidate ... in a head to head race, the Democrats will need a better campaign slogan than "well, at least we're not republicans" ... the current disenchantment will help Democrats; a real vision backed up with some passion will help much more ...

the Democrats are squandering the many advantages they currently hold ... we cannot remain a party of individuals with each running an ad hoc campaign ... it is time to build a real Democratic vision to carry the country forward for the next few decades ... if we remain a bunch of campaigns rather than a movement, any wins we may enjoy in 2006, while more than welcome, will be very short-lived ...

source: http://palmbeachpost.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Republicans+worry+about+reelection+as+voters+get+testy&expire=&urlID=15574987&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.palmbeachpost.com%2Fpbcsouth%2Fcontent%2Flocal_news%2Fepaper%2F2005%2F09%2F18%2Fm1a_gopalarm_0918.html&partnerID=494

Gas prices are just one part of the problem. Republican strategists worry about the Iraq war, growing deficits, the failure to do anything about Social Security, the increasing cost of homeowners insurance, the expected spike in home heating and cooling costs and, now, the government's failure to be prepared for the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Some Republicans say voters are becoming so disillusioned that incumbents could pay a dear price in the 2006 election. And that means the GOP could pay the heaviest price. As the party in power in Florida, it holds the governor's mansion and the vast majority of Florida's congressional delegation, along with the state House and Senate. <skip>

"We are as vulnerable as we have been in a number of years," said Tom Slade, former chairman of the Florida Republican Party. "It is not a pretty picture." <skip>

Foley agrees. "These are the kind of tipping-point moments that have the potential to derail us," Foley said. "Incumbents suffer more when people believe there is a failure of leadership."

Republicans also worry that the problems they face now are not going away anytime soon:

•Gas prices have dropped a bit but continue to be much higher than they were a year ago. Drivers are not only paying at the pump; they are paying more for everything from airline tickets to electricity as the increased cost of fuel is passed on to consumers.

•Iraq continues to be uncertain. The GOP would like to see significant troop withdrawals next year, but that depends on the performance of the Iraqi government and its security forces.

•Consumers are feeling the squeeze of higher housing costs, the rising price of home and medical insurance and higher property taxes.

•Social Security reform has fallen flat. President Bush and GOP members of Congress campaigned hard for reforms that included private savings accounts. Voters balked.

•Even conservative Republicans are starting to rebel over the nation's $333 billion deficit, which could rise another $200 billion to pay for Hurricane Katrina's damage.

•Katrina hearings and bad publicity about the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other government agencies that failed to respond adequately in the early days of the crisis could go on for months.

[whistle]

1. What reelection? Shrub wants to become dictator for life

[rzemanfl]

2. They should worry about defenestration, castration, mutilation,

decapitation and other like words that end in "tion." Losing is the least of their worries.

[welshTerrier2]

3. defenestration?

you mean we're going to make them run Linux ??

[IChing]

26. defenestration-nice word, I learned something today thanks

defenestration |d??fen??str? sh ?n|
noun formal or humorous the action of throwing someone or something out of a window.

DERIVATIVES defenestrate |-?fen??str?t| verb ORIGIN early 17th cent.: from modern Latin defenestratio(n-), from de- ‘down from’ + Latin fenestra ‘window.’

[acmejack]

4. Dept of the Obvious

"Incumbents suffer more when people believe there is a failure of leadership."

Really?

[Pithy Cherub]

27. It was the unanimous decision of Team Clueless to

make that their contribution to the Department of the Obvious's pitiful efforts. :evilgrin:

[AX10]

5. If the Dems do very well next year,

we could have 51-53 Senate seats and 235-246 House seats.

As well we could have 26-30 Governors and 51-56% of the state legislatures.

[aquart]

7. And the Republicans get to stick us with the Iraq tarbaby.

WE will be the ones who lost the war, not them.

[AX10]

11. No, people blame Bush for that.

Democrats will have to come in as some point and clean up house just as FDR and the Dems did some 80 year back. We have to take a chance of this. I am willing to take that chance and I believe that the people will give us the benefit of the doubt just as they did 80 years ago. Bush f%$*$#% it all up and we Democrats will have to fix the mess. I love this country and I want to do what's best for it.

:patriot:

[Demeter]

18. We Finally Get to Impeach and Convict BushCo!

That's the prize--and a few more Supreme Court appointments (all the judicairy, in fact) wouldn't go amiss.

Clean up election fraud and reintroduce responsibility and accountability and competence...there's no end of tasks awaiting a change in leadership.

[Mend]

8. Is that enough to impeach bush and cheney? eom

[Tiggeroshii]

10. What's the House at right now?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

13. How are you calculating the 51-53? I just looked on SurveyUSA.com

and the most vulnerable (negative exceeds positive approval)are

Mel Martinez - Fl
Rick Santorum - PA
Tom Coburn - OK
Voinovitch - OH
DeWine - OH

That's 5. Who else looks good for the picking?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

17. i heard tell that Olymphia Snowe was thinking of retiring...a shoein

[AX10]

20. Dewine of Ohio,

Kyl of Arizona, Santorum of PA, and Talent from MO. Chaffee too.

[Lexingtonian]

29. not all of those are up for elections next November....

Here's the list best as I see it.

Jeffords (I-VT) retires and Sanders (D) wins the seat easily.

Santorum (PA) will be defeated by Casey along pure party/ideological lines in the state.

Chaffee (RI)...his fate is swinging in the wind, there's no gratitude or political point to what he does. The swing RI voters, who still support him for being 'reasonable', are not hard support. He's supposedly running again but that's IMHO behavior mostly driven by spite for both Parties. I think he's really tired and beaten up and it's all just indignity now, that's the fundamental reality, and my impression is he'll officially admit to retiring sometime early next year- and a slumping in polling will push it. There is no electable Republican replacement candidate.

Snowe (ME) has supposedly been in poor health, some kind of problems with osteoporosis and such things, for a few years. And her essential political raison d'etre revolves around the Bath naval shipyard, which she probably saved this year but whose status as a political object is diminishing rapidly. There is no electable Republican replacement candidate.

Spector (PA) is giving his Senate role all he can, but he has gone to Ed Rendell recently to bargain about who his appointed replacement would be if/when he resigns. I think that day comes when he feels his efforts to hamstring Republican insanity are no longer as necessary, due to breakdown of Republican energy and ability, or he physically can't achieve it. I say mid or late 2006 is when things get that far.

DeWine (OH), Talent (MO), Burns (MT), Kyl (AZ), and Ensign (NV) are all wrong for their states at this point; the issue for Democrats is mostly getting adequate candidates to run- voters want the kind that doesn't shirk leadership or mince words and doesn't live in the past. We're going have to do some serious work in MD and MN to keep those seats Democratic too, though I'm counting on Republicans weakening enough (despite manic bursts of energy) to not be able to pull off winning them. The Maryland Democratic Party is too much a machine party that it isn't going to take some serious damage from Rove/Ehrlich. Likewise in New Jersey.

My impression of the 2006 election is one simple, strong, last, intensification of the famous/infamous Red/Blue map...Red fading and Blue intensifying and overcoming Red's 2002/04 peaking pretty cleanly. Some kind of 'moderate' or Southern-focussed strategy is utterly wrong- Democratic majorities in office and coherent in their initiatives will come from clearing Republicans out of seats in Blue States. And there should/will be a true Democratic majority at all levels. I don't see full coherence of the Party prior to the '06 elections but it will result from taking over power. Wrecking the remnants of the hardline Right components of the present Republican coalition will be the first job- killing the political power of the 'Christian' Right, e.g. I think that will back Democrats into the principled positions, i.e. in favor of serious enforcement of a coherent 14th Amendment doctrine and semi-protectionism/technology-centered economic growth, that they've lacked. And an 'evolutionary' approach to Iraq's governance problem.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. Very Interesting! I think that we can hold our own on most of this

if our candidates have:

(1) A clear way to get out of Iraq
(2) A good plan to rebuild and safeguard our homeland

[welshTerrier2]

9. re: "good plan to rebuild"

hi laura !!

i think the rebuilding plan for NO needs to include a Democratic vision for 1. JOBS and 2. FUNDING ...

this is our chance to put real Democratic values on the front page ... it can't be more of this "working with the President; we're all one nation" crapola ...

Democrats need to present a program of their own and show how Democratic ideals will put the entire region back to work at meaningful jobs with real pay ... and we need to show that we can pay for emergencies like this without further borrowing and crippling of the national debt ...

[Laura PourMeADrink]

16. hi. I agree ! This is a perfect time to make the opposition look

really bad if they continue to support the tax cuts for the wealthy. They are in a no-win situation on that one. If they support the tax cuts and gulf coast rebuilding then we can hammer them on the deficit.

Yes, it would be great if we had a plan of our own that ALL dems could support. The problem for us too, though, is that they've spent all the money. Our only funding can come from complete roll-back of the tax cut - which could work given the circumstances?

p.s. Bosox losing 7-0, We've GOT to catch up so we can gain a game !

[welshTerrier2]

19. "roll-back of the tax cut"

and withdrawing from the madness in Iraq ... polls of Americans show the number one way Americans want to pay for the rebuilding in Iraq is the cutting off of funding for Iraq ...

the winning "PR" is that we should spend money "on our own country" instead of pumping "more American tax dollars" into "bush's failed policies in Iraq" ...

[Laura PourMeADrink]

22. funny, I thought that should have been our strategy in 2004 ! I

often wonder if on Sept 12, 2001 we had taken that tack. Sure, send troops to find Bin Laden, but create a WPA type program to rebuild the US and make it safer. How much better off we would be right now.

[welshTerrier2]

23. Hurricane Donna ...

here is one of the Democratic Party's fine spokespersons on the subject:

"But on Thursday night, after watching him speak from the heart, I could not have been prouder of the president and the plan he outlined to empower those who lost everything and to rebuild the Gulf Coast." - Donna Brazile ...

she could not have been prouder !!!

what more do you need to know ???

[Laura PourMeADrink]

25. I have never liked her. They always call her a "democratic

strategist." b......t. But I guess there is some of the "I am not going to cut myself off from the man with the money" going on - if they have a vested interest in gulf coast.

Where do you think our weakness will be? The traditional - "Big Spending Liberal" slogan is shot. "Weak on Defense" - I guess we could still hear that if we say we want to pull out of Iraq - but that could be countered with "stronger defense at home." I would still love to hear a candidate declare a war on cancer and alzheimers.

[Wordie]

30. (3) a coherent economic plan to repair the damage of the * ideologues. nt

[Faygo Kid]

12. Diebold will protect them in national elections

Will be tough to rig every congressional district, though. Too many people would have to be involved, and the truth might leak out. Who would report it is another story, though.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. True enough. Diebold will save the day at the national level

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

15. Palm Beach Post, eh? Schiavo intrusion by the GOP should be on the list

I would guess the true majority of Floridians found that GOP grandstanding and intrusive legislation rather repulsive too.:shrug:

[iconoclastic cat]

21. "Many Democrats, however, apparently don't." n/t

[Gyre]

24. Either the repiglicans quoted are out of "the loop"

or they're pretending they don't know about "the fix" being in.

Gyre

[seabeyond]

28. as much as we say otherwise, kerry had plans for education

health care, insurance, small business, ect..... i know because i heard the same things speech after speech and every once in a great while a little would get on the news. i know he had good plans, because i listened. i saw they were doable. i saw they were smart adn would help middle and low class. i was excited to get these programs going.

kerry did have a plan

another repug ploy, dems have no plan. they say say say as does media. and.... media doesnt report what the dems say. what their plans are.

continuously the dems have been saying what is wrong, how to do it rigth. gotta have it on cspan though to know.