In the wake of Scott Brown's surprise victory in the Massachusetts special election for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat, Republicans have been whipping themselves into an orgasmic frenzy over their prospects for a sweeping victory in the November midterms.
Whether it's GOP head Michael Steele, Washington pols, pundits or right wing media spinheads, conservatives have been giddily regurgitating ad nauseum about how the "country is undergoing a massive shift to the right," as radio host Sean Hannity disingenuously boasts. On his program Friday, Hannity and his smarmy guest Dick Morris were about as high as a couple of glue-sniffing teens as they predicted Senate victories practically everywhere in the country. "In California and New York even," Hannity gushed with delusion. "And the prospects in the House are even better," Morris assessed, adding a layer of icing to Hannity's fantasycake, predicting a possible 50 seat pickup there. And the Easter Bunny's coming too.
Unfortunately for these two crafty soothsayers, as well as Steele, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the blood-smelling lot, there's eight months between now and the election. And eight months in politics is an eternity. By November it is more than likely we'll have seen several straight months of job creation; appreciable growth in the manufacturing sector; another two quarters of GDP growth; a precipitous drop in the unemployment rate; much higher consumer confidence and spending; a significant improvement in the right track/wrong track numbers; continued growth in the housing, financial and retail sectors; increased credit availability; and another year of appreciable stock market gains. So the GOP's chances of taking back the House and Senate, as Hannity and Morris arrogantly predict, will be about as likely as Steele getting re-elected. It's more likely, given Republicans' low Congressional approval ratings and how polls show that Americans view them as the Party of No, that Democrats will gain even more control in both houses.
To be sure, Hannity & Co know damned well that this is the case, which is why they must continue to lie and deceive their listeners. Case in point: a caller to Hannity Friday ignorantly declared that "we are still in a recession, and manufacturing continues to lose jobs." But did Hannity correct her by pointing to the two most recent quarters of GDP growth as well as the January jobs report showing 11,000 manufacturing jobs added (the first monthly increase since November '07)? Fat chance. He just shrieked, "Of course it is!" and continued to bash President Obama and Democrats as if the economy was stuck in reverse, and not experiencing a steady and solid recovery.
The simple truth is, Hannity and other shameless propagandists can spin like tarantulas all they want, but come November if more Americans are working and feeling good about the economy, Republicans will still be outside the Beltway looking in, right where they belong.
As an aside, how ironic is it that Hannity, who's railed on for years now about the "radical" Barack Obama and his "radical associations", has as one of his most frequent guests the scandal-plagued $200-an-hour-prostitute-payin'-toes-suckin'-philanderin' Morris? That sure sounds like a pretty radical guy to me, and one who the self-righteous, sanctimonious, hypocritical Hannity ought not to be "associatin'" with. I guess it's just more of that good 'ole Republican "do as I say not as I do."
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1 comment:
Sure, the GOP media is making a mountain out of a molehill in regards to winning 2 governorships and a Senate seat, but that doesn't mean that the Democrats can rest easy. They have already lost control of the Senate to the 41-seat GOP majority, and the takeover of the House remains a slim possibility. Momentum is everything right now, and the Democrats don't have any.
Whether these changes take place is certainly within the purview of the Democrats to influence, but can they be trusted to rise to the challenge? I like some of the things Obama has done in the last couple of weeks, but these are things he should have done at the beginning of his term last year. Now, they are seen as too little and too late!
I read recently that even Congressional Democrats are getting a bit tired of waiting for Obama to take a lead role in advancing their agenda. Should a Democrat rise to the opportunity and actually do something with it, leading the Party to some kind of victory that returns a secure Democratic majority this Fall, Obama can kiss off any chance at re-election. Said champion would likely raise a primary challenge to Obama in 2012 and take much of the Democratic base (and many independents) away from him. Could this be why there is a balloon floating about with "Obama Hillary 2012" on it? An attempt to stave off such a rival without don't anything substantial for the people? It won't help, Barry!
I ran across a web site yesterday (sorry, don't remember which) that had a poll asking readers what grade they would give to Obama for his first year. From the comments, this wasn't a Reich-winger collective, but at least a center-left site with some progressive topics on the roster. One would think that Obama would have at least done fairly well. He didn't. Over 50% of those responding in the poll gave him an F- for a grade.
So for Obama and the Democrats to prevent a GOP takeover of the majority role in Congress, they have a lot of work to do clearing the debris they themselves made. Then they can get to doing the job they were hired to do in November 2008: rebuilding the nation the Republicans destroyed over the last thirty years.
I'm not holding my breath.
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