Just like my title indicated with the fiasco that is Todd Akins happening this week my worst fears are being confirmed...The Election Has Shifted and If We Don't Adjust We Could Lose This Election!! Follow me over the jump....
Democrats have an opportunity to re-take the House and hold onto both the Senate and the Presidency. But we've got to stop celebrating the cough cough football analagy touch back we've just made and go out and kick some ass on this next play. This election is no longer a referendum on President Obama. The Obama team has successfully made this a choice election. However, we've been so busy celebrating the shiny objects in this election (i.e. Paul Ryan/Todd Akin) that we are not seizing the opportunities being handed to us. Making the case regarding...The CHOICE. We are acting like we've won this election. Claire McCaskill showed us textbook style exactly how to seize the opportunity.
Yes..most people won't be paying close attention until after the conventions however, but alot of people are watching now. The polls are showing 72% of folks are aware that Romney/Ryan want to change Medicare into a voucher program and only 49% believe we should keep the plan with minor tweaks as is. That is under 50%!! 716 billion stolen from Medicare to fund Obamacare is the republican meme and it's muddying the waters. We let that meme go without challenging it HARD (except Soledad O'brien) always believing the electorate is too smart to believe the LIE. We aren't!! Even though this President has a small 4 point advantage that is still within the margin of error not taking into account voter suppression. Polls are also showing that the undecideds in this election cycle are very small somewhere around 3/4 percent. It seems to me the Republicans realized this is going to be a base election a few weeks ago that's why they are making choices we don't understand (i.e. Paul Ryan). While we are celebrating Todd Akins crazy ass positions being exposed and all the while watching the faux outrage of the right the message that is getting out there is that Republicans are against abortions and Todd Akins is an extremist in the party. Of course he's not but you'd have to be a junkie like us to know that. The average person is not aware of Todd's extreme policy positions that would prevent women from being able to get birth control, Plan B, and even rape kits after an assault. These are the memes we've got to hit HARD. The average person has no idea the Republican party platform hold these EXACT same policy positions. All the public hears is lalala Republicans are Pro-Life and lalala Dems are Pro-Choice. Well the country is roughly split now on these two positions. The country is NOT split on plan B, birthcontrol, and rape kits. That falls directly on our side of the policy debate. Abortion is the third leg of the stool that really gets the christian fundamentalist base out to vote. This race is tightening. President Obama is still leading but tightening seems to be happening. We've got to stop celebrating and figure out how to get our base enthused!! How are going to get our base out to vote? Alot of our coalition sat at home in 2010. We cannot let that happen again. We've got to figure out a way to light a fire under our coalition. Donate money & time to the campaigns both national and in our home states. The republicans may not like Mitt Romney but the HATE President Obama!! They are motivated and doing everything they can to make sure the electorate favors them. Will-I-Am we need a Yes We Can part 2