Why Democrats Lose Elctions... Reason #5178
Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 2:26 pm
Congress seems ready to adjourn and go home without trying to address the financial crisis. Harry Reid says: "No one knows what to do at the moment."
http://tinyurl.com/4urmak
While that may be true, it's not what the party seeking to gain control of the White House should be saying. In fact, today the Democrats seem to have dropped the economy as their major issue and seem intent on sticking it to McCain about whether he's going to meet with the Prime Minister of Spain. No one know who the Prime Minister of Spain is and no one cares whether McCain or Obama is going to meet with him or not.
The Republicans have been very good in this campaign about getting Obama and company off message, but this time it seems they haven't had to do much about it because the Democrats are willing to get off message themselves. Instead, it's McCain and Palin emphasizing what they plan to do about the regulatory crisis while Obama seems content to drift. If the public senses that Obama is all talk about the crisis, then his bump will disappear very soon.
Part of the problem is that Obama has no set of core convictions or strong ideas about the economy that he can return to. Neither does McCain but it's not his bread and butter issue. Clinton was always able to steer the conversation back to the economy; Obama can't or won't. When the oil crisis was foremost in everyone's minds, every day the Republicans were saying "drill here, drill now." Now that the economic winds have shifted, potentially to the Democrats' advantage, they seem completely unable to take advantage of it other than to say "McCain = Bush 3."
This is beginning to smell like yet another advantage that the Democrats are intent or content to fritter away.
http://tinyurl.com/4urmak
While that may be true, it's not what the party seeking to gain control of the White House should be saying. In fact, today the Democrats seem to have dropped the economy as their major issue and seem intent on sticking it to McCain about whether he's going to meet with the Prime Minister of Spain. No one know who the Prime Minister of Spain is and no one cares whether McCain or Obama is going to meet with him or not.
The Republicans have been very good in this campaign about getting Obama and company off message, but this time it seems they haven't had to do much about it because the Democrats are willing to get off message themselves. Instead, it's McCain and Palin emphasizing what they plan to do about the regulatory crisis while Obama seems content to drift. If the public senses that Obama is all talk about the crisis, then his bump will disappear very soon.
Part of the problem is that Obama has no set of core convictions or strong ideas about the economy that he can return to. Neither does McCain but it's not his bread and butter issue. Clinton was always able to steer the conversation back to the economy; Obama can't or won't. When the oil crisis was foremost in everyone's minds, every day the Republicans were saying "drill here, drill now." Now that the economic winds have shifted, potentially to the Democrats' advantage, they seem completely unable to take advantage of it other than to say "McCain = Bush 3."
This is beginning to smell like yet another advantage that the Democrats are intent or content to fritter away.