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According to Sunday’s New York Times, President Obama hopes that putting its 2008 campaign team together to “oversee House, Senate and governor’s races to stave off a hemorrhage of seats in the fall.”
David Plouffe, President Obama former campaign manager is being pressed into service to coordinate the Democrats’ efforts to keep the normal off-year election losses the party in power usually sustains from becoming a full-fledged rout in November.
Mr. Plouffe, wrote a piece for Sunday’s Washington Post titled “November doesn’t need to be a nightmare for Democrats“, in which he lays out what will presumably be the thrust of Democratic efforts this year.
Here is a bullet point listing of them:
- “Pass a meaningful health insurance reform package without delay.” Presumably, he means to abandon the graft filled proposals that have been passed by the House and Senate – which poll after poll show most Americans oppose. Maybe they could pass something without things like the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase, and the Union exemption? Perhaps they could actually carry out their negotiations in the light of day?
- “We need to show that we not just are focused on jobs but also create them.” The problem is that they haven’t been focused on jobs, they’ve been focused on Health Insurance Reform (with a little Cap and Trade thrown in). Since Martha Coakley lost in Massachusetts, Democrats have been saying they can’t give up on their current Health Insurance Reform bills or they would have wasted the entire year working on it. If you really feel that way, you can’t honestly say that “jobs” have been your focus.
- “Make sure voters understand what the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act did for the economy.” This one will be interesting. The stimulus package was supposed to create millions of jobs, but by their own admission, Recovery.gov can’t vouch for how many jobs were actually created. Add to that the recent AP study on the stimulus which says that the $20 billion in spending on roads and bridges had no impact on unemployment and, well, I guess we’ll be hearing a lot about how many teaching and police jobs were saved by the stimulus. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that there was funding provided to help keep teachers and cops on the job, but don’t try to tell me that saving government jobs is the same as helping kick start the economic recovery by ‘creating’ private sector jobs… it just isn’t.
- “Don’t accept any lectures on spending.” Well, considering the budgets for the last three years have been approved by the Democrat controlled Congress, I think it is getting harder and harder to blame Republicans. How long do Democrats have to be in charge before they start accepting responsibility for things that happen while they have had control? Apparently, three years is not long enough.
- “”Change” is not just about policies.” Somehow, Mr. Plouffe wants to remind people that Democrats have cleaned up Congress and that Republicans were plagued by ethics problems that the Democrats don’t have. Sounds like a plan. Well, as long as people don’t think about things like Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd’s mortgage issue, or New York Representative Charles Rangel’s financial and tax problems, or the backroom dealing and pay offs that have gone on with the Health Insurance Reform bills…
- “Run great campaigns.” Well, to be fair, this requires them to run good candidates (for the most part). As the saying goes, “You can’t polish a turd.” Of course, the Republicans have their own honey wagon full of potential stinker candidates, too, so the Democrats should be able to do something here.
- “No bed-wetting.” I think the fact that he even has to list this one is quite telling.
Basically, it sounds as Mr. Plouffe’s strategy will be, “Campaign like its 2008!”
He doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo that Democrats control both the White House and the Congress. At some point they will have to start accepting blame for things that have gone wrong on their ‘watch’ and for promises that they failed to keep.
Their biggest problem in the 2010 elections, though?
President Obama might be able to bring back his 2008 campaign team, but he can’t bring back George W. Bush to campaign against.
Sure, they can try it, but I don’t think running against a man that will have been out of office for nearly two years is going to be a winning strategy.
Of course, with Congressional job approval at only 26%, it might be a better strategy than for Democrats to run on their record as the party that has controlled Congress for the last three years.
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