We lost because we deserved to lose.

[rateyes]

2 years ago, the American people gave control of the executive and both branches of Congress to the Democrats; overwhelming control. They expected leadership. They did not get it.

Pelosi did not lead; she followed. Harry Reid did not lead; he followed. Barack Obama did not lead; he followed.

And, they all made excuses by saying, "The majority in the Senate wasn't large enough."

And, I call bullshit.

The public option could have passed through reconciliation the way the entire healthcare bill passed. Obama had negotiated it away, though, and Harry Reid would not let it go to the floor for a vote. The result was a bill that did little more than protect insurance companies.

Meanwhile, Pelosi kept letting funding bills for the Iraq War come to the floor and be passed. The bailout bill was designed to bail out the banks, not the American people.

Unions got screwed. Teachers got screwed. You don't win by pissing off your base.

We expected leadership. We didn't get it. And, the American people sent a message tonight letting the Democrats know that we are hurting out here, and that we are tired.

Obama would do well to grow a spine in the next two years and, instead of allowing Congress to lead him, do what he needs to do to lead the country. He is the commander in chief. He needs to act like it, and order our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. He needs to put pressure on Israel by threatening withholding of financial aid until they make peace with Palestine. He needs to close Guantanamo now. He needs to instruct the DOJ to quit defending DODT, and let the court ruling declaring it unconsitutional stand.

He needs to push for a huge increase in the minimum wage, and push for MASSIVE amounts of money to go directly into the hands of the middle class. He should VETO any continued tax cuts for the wealthy, even if that means vetoeing tax cuts for the middle class.

He should relieve Arne Duncan of his post as Education Secretary and push for a repeal of "No Child Left Behind" and scrap the "Race to the Top" bullshit.

We wanted leadership two years ago.

We didn't get it.

And, we got voted out of power for it. Why give power to those who won't use it?

I hope we learned our lesson.

[OmahaBlueDog]

1. We lost because politics is cyclical and we won big the past two elections

The economy is still in the tank, and Americans (on the whole) like divided government. They say they want change; what they really want is comfort.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

9. "we won big the past two elections"...and..."The economy is still in the tank"

there's your answer.
when you vote for change and "win big" two elections in a row... people will be pissed off when nothing changes.

[Marr]

10. Are you really just going to stick your fingers in your ears?

"Politics is cyclical"? That's your explanation, after all the all the casual dismissals of various angered segments of the Democratic base?

Well, can't say I'm surprised. Reality hurts sometimes.

[Fla_Democrat]

22. Of course it's cyclical

2010 American voters are stupid and fearful
2008 American voters are wise beyone measure
2006 American voters are brilliant
2004 American Voters are stupid and fearful
2002 American voters are stupid and fearful
2000 American voters are stupid (not fearful yet)
1996 American voters are wise and recognise greatness
1994 American voters are stupid and gullible
1992 American voters are brilliant

How far back do you wish to go?


:smoke:

[NYC Liberal]

2. We GOT leadership, but thanks to a bloc of conservative Dems and the gNOp,

a lot of things couldn't get done, even with the majorities we had.

And a lot of good things HAVE passed and are now the law of the land.

[Nite Owl]

3. Time will tell but

I doubt that they have learned anything and will try to continue a misguided course.

[glinda]

We need to elect the toughest people we can find.

[wisteria]

4. I don't agree. The Democrats accomplished a lot and the Repubs spun lies.

We should be proud of what we accomplished.

[MiniMe]

15. I agree

It is a shame they couldn't much through the Senate.

[young but wise]

5. -1

:eyes:

[kwolf68]

6. Get over it

We signed hate crimes law, health care law, student loan reform, closed guantanimo, financial reform to keep credit card whores from raising rates, increased funding for VA, added mental health pros to the VA roles, signed legs that helped those living with paralysis, eliminated the option to reject those with pre-existing conditiosn on health care, increased funding for parks by 10%, etc....

A lot of good shit was done in the last 2 years

[Laura PourMeADrink]

14. you made such good points...why did you have to spoil it with

the "get over it" lead?? :>)

problem is...WE HAVE NO PR, ZIP, ZERO, NONE. When did anyone brag about what we did?

and it's maslow -- no job no money....you don't care about guantanimo.

[rateyes]

16. Gitmo is not closed. The health insurance for those with

pre-existing conditions is not affordable. The devil is in the details.

[ScreamingMeemie]

20. +1...But "things" got done.

[Marr]

26. And credit card companies haven't been prevented from making exhorbitant rate increases.

They just have to send you a note, informing you of the incoming increase now.

People who hold these PR accomplishments up as great moments are making their critics' arguments for them.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

7. Hi RE...brilliantly put...as usual.. hey jerry just won. I agree with

you 1000%

[rateyes]

12. Hi...

:hi: hadn't seen you in a while.

[cprompt]

8. +1

[Naturyl]

11. K&R

[jgraz]

13. *We* lost, but *we* didn't deserve to lose.

We worked our asses off to elect Democrats and give them historic majorities. We delivered unprecedented opportunities. They frittered it away.


Next time, we need to elect someone other than them.

[prolesunited]

17. Other than Dems

in a two-party system. How's that work?

[jgraz]

25. You elect other Dems. Primary every centrist.

Then you work to allow more candidates in the races.

[democrat2thecore]

18. God, the truth hurts...but it's still the truth....nt

[tavalon]

19. We lost because America is angry and easily led by it's low information nose

to the stupidest of places for the stupidest of reasons. If only Obama gets the right message from this, it will almost be worth it. But he won't, so it most assuredly isn't.

[FrenchieCat]

21. We lost because Democrats were running against the media.....

and BTW, the media used you too.

[DimplesinMI]

23. One word is why we lost.....UNEMPLOYMENT!!!

With unemployment at 9.6 percent and in my state a whopping 13 percent (my state is Michigan, that is), the unemployment rate is why we lost. In Michigan, we lost pretty much everything....Governor...GOP, Secretary of State...GOP, Attorney General...GOP and the worst, Michigan Supreme Court....GOP.

President Obama did not GET SERIOUS about talking about the huge elephant in the room. Namely the unemployment rate and what the hell he was going to do about it. He talked about creating jobs without any specifics and worst, any real action.

He could have easily took the mandate he was given in 2008 and called for a FDR type WAP Program to get the country working again. The Small Business Bill was great but frankly, he took to long for ask for it.

Oh....one more problem for the President. He royalty SCREWED UP the Foreclosure Crisis! The HAMP program has been a complete failure. Robosigned paperwork is STILL being allowed to up homeowners out of there homes. People are mad and I will end by stating this....

If he continues on the path of acting as if neither one of these important financial issues manner....he will lose in 2012. He needs to develop a BACKBONE. Stop trying to ride both parts of the fence. We elected him to be on our side. We are confused on if he is with us or if he is playing FREAKING games.

That is my opinion. What is yours?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

24. Unrec.

A party that spent the last 1-2 years doing the people's business and actually getting some good things done does NOT deserve to lose like we did tonight in the House and in some Senate races. The House of Representatives, under Pelosi's leadership, ended up being the most prolific and active part of our government to date and should've WON tonight at the polls.

A party that spent the last 1-2 years constantly obstructing and attacking the President, refusing to compromise, desiring the President of the United States of America to "fail" at his job and for certain bills to fail so that they could be made into albatrosses to hang around the President's head should have lost BIG at the polls tonight IMHO.

In a just world, this is the way things ought to have worked out IMHO.

But because we don't live in that perfect world, a significant amount of the voting public somehow ultimately came to believe that President Obama is an irredeemable terrorist-loving, anti-colonial, possibly foreign born, possibly Muslim, socialist tyrant driving this country into a state of economic ruin from which we may NEVER recover and that he and his cabal of Democratic *extremists* in Congress needed to be "stopped" from causing further "harm" to this country.

In response to this raft of wild lies, distortions, and corporate media brainwashing project, people have now apparently responded by willfully placing the obstructionist "party of no" (aka Republicans) in control of a branch of Congress- along with a raft of Republican extremists calling themselves "teabaggers" to fight things that aren't even happening under the current administration and that they willfully ignored (if not actively supported) while Bush was POTUS and Republicans controlled Congress.

Now we have the likes of John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Michelle Bachmann being the *leaders* of the House for the next two years. Leadership? Oh yeah, they'll be "leaders" all right- and they will all be leading our country in the WRONG direction.

[BzaDem]

27. Rightly or wrongly, the only "lesson" they will learn is to move further to the right.

That's what happens when Democratic apathy enables Republican victories. If you are thrilled with the second six years of Clinton's term, you will be happy in the years ahead.

Perhaps the real lesson that will be learned will be by apathetic Democratic non-voters. And it will be a hard and painful lesson at that.