Monday, February 23, 2009

Lessons in Fail

Looks like the Gop is shoveling the pooh fast and furious to find that Magic Electoral Pony to win back the House and Senate in 2010. It's the old/new smear and fear though not on National Security this time. Dial back to 1993 when Newt Gingrich took the NO road on Clinton's effort at health care reform , doubling down with money scandals by dems in Congress to paint a picture of big spending al a corrupt democrats should be thrown out.

One problem, actually several problems with this tact in 2009. The republicans have broken all records in scandals that make those by dems in 1993 look like child's play. Plus, running the economy into the ground the past eight years, two costly and largely failed wars, and a nation ready for change not of the kind the GOP provided. So they pull out the old playbook for some Deja Vu and spin the wheel again. Jeanne Cummings expand the trouble with the new conservative comeback using old ideas.

First the take from GOP strategist (cough) Grover NOrquist.

There are two models that Republicans are looking at,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. “One is 1990, [President George H.W.] Bush gets together with the Democrats at Andrews Air Force Base, raises taxes and loses the next election,” he explained. “The other is 1993, Democrats have a series of proposals to spend and tax. Republicans vote no and regain the House and Senate.”


Jeanne Cummings from Politco


It’s not 1994 anymore

For one thing, Obama isn’t Clinton.

President Bill Clinton never won a popular majority in his two elections. Obama did. His vote margin exceeded 9 million votes, the largest ever for a nonincumbent presidential contender — including Ronald Reagan’s 1980 win over President Jimmy Carter.

And another thing: Republicans aren’t in the ascendancy as they were in 1994. After two victorious election cycles, the Democrats have puréed the Republicans into their purest conservative caucus.

In a way, that made it easier for Republicans to vote against Obama’s stimulus plan. But a repeat performance on health care could be more complicated.

Health care is a personal issue for many voters. Reforming the current system ranks as the public’s third top priority, according to a January Kaiser Family Foundation poll. And many of those advocates aren’t traditional Democratic constituents.

“We are in a different game, and they are playing by the old rules,” said Stan Greenberg, a Democratic political strategist and former Clinton adviser.

Ordinary families and businesses, big and small, are struggling with health care’s rising costs. Insurance companies and drug makers that stood by Republicans in the last debate are now cozying up to the Obama team, hoping to influence a final reform bill.


Everything old is new again.

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