Tobiasly’s Blog

A great quote from an article on Nancy Pelosi’s chances of becoming Speaker Of The House this November:

“Pelosi has done little to embolden Democrats with a winning agenda beyond the rhetoric of direct mail attacks on Republicans, leaving party candidates on their own to say anything relevant to the millions of nonpartisan voters who will decide control of Congress,” Craig Crawford, Congressional Quarterly columnist and author of “Attack the Messenger: How Politicians Turn You Against the Media,” wrote in June.

“Pelosi might be a skilled backroom operator, but compared to Newt Gingrich’s fiery crusade to GOP victory in 1994 — well, there is no comparison,” Crawford added. “It is as difficult to imagine Pelosi as speaker of the House as it is to envision (comedian) Adam Sandler as Superman.”

It’s no secret that the conditions are right for the Democrats to take control of the House this fall. If only they followed the GOP playbook from 2004, it would be theirs for the taking. Unfortunately for them, they are incapable of delivering a coherent agenda that they can all agree upon and which resonates with the American electorate, particularly moderates and independents, the way the Contract With America did in 2004.

There’s not a single issue which is important to Americans on which the Democrats can even come to a consensus, much less offer leadership. And in politics, in order for a challenger to win, it’s necessary to give the electorate a reason to fire the incumbent. The Democrats continue to fail to do so.

Six months ago, I was sure that by this point in the campaign season, the House Dems and their allies challenging GOP incumbents would have come up with such a plan by now and that it would spell certain doom for the GOP’s chances of keeping the House. Every time over the past decade when the Dems have suffered yet another humiliating defeat, they have vowed to come together as a party, reach out to moderates, and define a clear vision for the future. That has yet to happen, and it’s looking more and more like 2006 won’t be the year that it does.

I’m beginning to think that this will be yet another year when the Dems manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Senate Minority Leader Henry Reid put it best* in a recent article in The Onion when he said:

“We are entirely capable of bungling this opportunity to regain control of the House and Senate and the trust of the American people,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said to scattered applause. “It will take some doing, but we’re in this for the long and pointless haul.”

“We can lose this,” Reid added. “All it takes is a little lack of backbone.”

* A disclaimer on the (hopefully) obvious: Reid didn’t really say this. This quote was invented by The Onion, a satirical newspaper.

And here I thought I had witnessed some bad sandstorms in the Middle East. Apparently I was wrong. This looks like something straight out of a Hollywood movie (Adobe Flash required):