Why is the presidential race so close right now? Romney is a flip flopping lying liar who won't come clean on his taxes, most likely for criminal reasons. And the American public is supporting him? How can this happen? And why is the Obama camp not running hard against the Republican led House and the obstructionist Senate minority? The case is crystal clear in charts and graphs just how anti-American they were. They have historically low approval ratings for a reason, yet they have not felt the heat from Obama.
It seems like a missed opportunity. Contrasting the legislative accomplishments of his first 2 years vs. the last 2 years of Republican obstruction will help innoculate the President to the "economy isn't good enough" complaint because he will be pinning some blame on the Republicans. The current Congress has abysmal favorability ratings for a reason, and responsibility for their failures and inaction should be put squarly at the feet of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. As standard-bearers for Republicans, we should expect the same agenda from Romney and his new Cabinet as the House pushed for the last 2 years: Anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-safety net, anti-American in so many ways.
Romney may be a slippery snake oil salesman, etch-a-sketching his way through each of the last 3 debates. And now he's stealing a slight lead in the national polls.
But he can't squirm away from the exceedingly unpopular Republican Do-Nothing House and the Won't-Let-You-Do-Nothin Republican Senate Minority. Obama can sink his teeth into both the extreme policies passed in the Republican House and their policy of unprecedented obstruction in the Senate.
President Obama's campaign needs to remind everyone that not only would a President Romney be picking any Supreme Court nominees, but think about it... Health & Human Services Secretary? Education Secretary? EPA, Energy, State, Defense? And who is going to fill those important positions? The same people who have been pushing extreme policies and blocking over a dozen jobs bills that President Obama sent them, all just for their political gain.
But President Obama has to do more than just complain to voters how mean they were to him. He also has to offer a solution, and the President needs to make his case for a congressional mandate to fix the economy.
First, the President should ask for and campaign for an enhanced Senate Democratic majority, with promise to tighten up the filibuster rules so there is no more people talking in quiet rooms™ with their secret holds. No, he needs to get Majority Leader Harry Reid on the record promising to change those rules. That's how you deliver the kind of change of the status quo that we expected after 2008.
But there is more work that seems to have been being neglected. If we can have any hope of reclaiming the House, we have to repair years of demonization of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi by FOX and the right wing megaphone$. We know her grit and determination, and she has an amazing record as speaker to prove it. But she is damaged, and she is part of the Democratic brand. She needs to have one of those moments where people can empathize and relate to her, and realize she is on their side.
As the right and left hands of President Obama on the 2 years when he had greater control of Congress, Pelosi and Reid delivered. And every day I realize more and more just how important passing Obamacare was. But we need to rehabilitate the images of these leaders who took the hits for the team, because people won't put them back into power if you don't. And it reflects on President Obama when his party's congressional leaders both have deeply underwater approval ratings.
Well... Rant over, I suppose, but I feel like we are really missing something fundamental about why the public is not moving in massive numbers to the Democrats right now.