Democratic Congress no longer a longshot?

[Philosoraptor]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/03/CONGRESS.TMP

Nine weeks before election day, Democrats are poised to make their biggest gains since the post-Watergate elections more than three decades ago.

Discontent over the war in Iraq, falling wages, corruption on Capitol Hill and President Bush's sinking popularity have led experts to forecast a perfect storm that will return Democrats to a majority in the House for the first time since 1994, and make San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi the speaker.

The experts give Democrats a shot at winning control of the Senate, a possibility that was regarded as unthinkable when the summer began, and say the party's prospects of taking over more than half of the nation's governorships are near certain.

Yet even as they foresee the strongest Democratic election in a generation, these same prognosticators see sharp limits to the party's potential gains.

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I'm not getting all giddy yet, but I bet the repubs are getting nervous, which makes me nervous.

[democrank]

1. I`d rather not count our chickens before they hatch.

We`ve seen Rove`s tricks squash our hopes time and time again. A quick review of Rove`s dirty tricks and assorted Swiftboat attacks should remind us to beware. We have to work like dogs to counteract this crap.

[rock]

3. Although I do like the count of the eggs

[gaspee]

2. Trying not to get too excited...

I'm watching George Stephanopolis' show and he just had Chafee and Laffey from Ri on, and Laffey thinks he's going to win. He is such an asshole -- but I really think he's going to beat Chafee in the primary, which you can pretty much put one in the D column.

Santorum's toast, Allen looks like he might be beatable. Burns is not doing too great...

I'm starting to get a little more hopeful when just two months ago, I didn't think the D's had a chance.

[KingFlorez]

4. I think this one is locked up

[Mr_Spock]

5. Being overconfident doesn't work well in politics

...it tends to motivate the opposition.

I will go with "cautiously optimistic" :D

[meldroc]

6. Cautiously optimistic++

A lot can still happen between now and November. We'll probably see an October Surprise, though if it's anything short of another 9/11, I doubt it'll do much. The repubs are in maximum smear mode, though I have enough confidence in the American People to believe that we'll see through that as well. Of course we'll also be Diebolded, and I'm hoping that enough people are aware of that situation that if that happens, there will be an enormous shitstorm of lawsuits in the dockets, and people protesting in the street (I'm personally planning on taking a sick day on the day after the election to go out and protest if I feel the election's been cooked.)

But in the end I'm defintely hoping for a Democratic takeover of both houses of Congress.