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For anyone watching, it’s easy to tell that part of the Republican strategy has to deal with attempting to take back control of the Congress in 2010, during the midterm elections. It’s rare for the party that gets the Presidency to win the first midterm elections. This can be attributed to the fact that many more people come out during a general election, and the head of the ticket usually has some coattails.
That being said, 2010 is especially significant.
The Significance of 2010
First, President Obama has continued to act as if he has a mandate to bring about wholesale socialistic reform to America. Actually, if he had a mandate it was probably “Do not be President George W. Bush” more than anything else. If President Obama’s party were to lose control of one or more houses of Congress, it would be seen as a stern rebuke by the American people.
Second, elections generally reflect the public’s attitude toward the direction of the country, and specifically the President’s leadership. When President Bush was seen as a “world leader” in the 9/11 aftermath, he gained control in the Congress. When President Clinton was immersed in scandal, he lost control.
Third, the American people like balance. Americans seem to gravitate toward the middle, rejecting reactionary movement either way. It’s a stabilizing factor. When one party seems to dominate and shut the other party out, the party shut out can gain sympathy—or see that their people show up at the polls more than the party in power.
Get Rid of Them All
I still am amused by the number of people that would vote to remove all of the representatives and start fresh. To me, that should tell our elected officials something.
I think a good purge is needed every once in a while in order to both keep people honest as well as to get new ideas. The problem with term limits (as we’ve seen with Presidents) is that a person who knows that they’ll come up to another election soon is guided to do things according to what the people who put him in office wanted him to do. In the case of a person with term limits, they have no check, and therefore they can feel emboldened to do whatever they want.
That’s scary.
Vice President Biden Agrees
Biden said Republicans are pinning their political strategy on flipping these seats.
“If they take them back, this the end of the road for what Barack and I are trying to do,” the vice president said at a fundraiser for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) today in Greenville, Delaware.1
Though Biden went on to say that if the Republicans should lose, there would be an enormous advantage in that some Republicans that would join the Democrats would feel free to do so, I don’t call that “Bipartisanship” I call that “Capitulation.”
In any case, it’s obvious. 2010 will be a good indicator of what is in store for the second half of the Obama Presidency.
