I know many of you fellow Kossacks are bummed about the fate of the Alito nomination as I am and rightly so. I'm sure all you Kossacks are particularly disappointed in Democrats -- that they failed to establish a narrative, an overarching reason to defeat this nomination. I know I am.
Still, as the most recent Washington Post poll illustrates, Democrats have so many raw materials work with between now and the next election. Below the fold, I'll list some of them.
As
Mark Shields points out,
... [t]he corruption issue is working very much. The president's got pictures of himself with Jack Abramoff he won't reveal. There is awkwardness in the administration. They're going to have a state of the union message that is going to be nothing but a political memo; it's not going to have any substance in it.
Let's also remember that 5-6 million Americans have lost their health insurance coverage since President Bush took office. Another, what, 5-6 million Americans are now living in poverty since President Bush took office? We have people all across the country -- particularly around the Gulf Coast, although some have moved -- crying out for relief from the Federal government, and have yet to receive that relief. GM has announced that it is going to lay off 25,000 workers over the next 5 years. Real wages have fallen since the President took office, and many workers are losing their pensions. There truly are people suffering in this country, and this President seems either detached from or indifferent to this human suffering.
And all that does not even mention the main event -- the Iraq War -- has been nothing but a disaster.
So there really is quite a bit going for Democrats, and we Kossacks should recognize this. We can retake the House and the Senate if we recognize how good our case is against Republicans. We need to be bold, and if we are bold, I think Democrats will suprise a lot of pundits, and do exceptionally well, perhaps even retake control of both houses of Congress.
Your thoughts? Anything else you would like to add?