THE DAILY BLADE: The Uniter: Part III
Noting that “[t]o become the nation's first black president, Barack Obama not only won heavy percentages of the black and Hispanic vote but also managed to trim the Democratic Party's traditional deficit among white voters,” Washington Post columnist Chris Cillizza writes that “Obama's standing among white voters has sunk”:
One senior strategist, speaking candidly about his concerns on the condition of anonymity, noted that white voters made up 79 percent of the 2006 midterm electorate, while they made up 74 percent of the 2008 vote. If the white percentage returns to its 2006 level, that means there will be 3 million more white voters than if it stayed at its 2008 levels. That scenario, said the source, "would generate massive losses" for House and Senate Democrats in November because of Obama's standing with that demographic.
To avoid such losses, the Democratic National Committee has committed to spending tens of millions of dollars to re-create (or come somewhere near re-creating) the 2008 election model, in which Democrats relied heavily on higher-than-normal turnout from young people and strong support from African American and Hispanic voters.
The DNC's plan is ambitious, to say the least: In the space of a few months, the strategists hope to change the composition of a midterm electorate that, if history is any guide, tends to be older and whiter than in a presidential-election year. Put that way, it sounds crazy - and it has drawn considerable skepticism from independent observers.
Um, "skepticism" is an understatement, even with the adjective "considerable" tacked on. Independent voters, too, have soured on Obama. A new Gallup tracking poll finds that only 38 percent of this segment supports him – down a whopping 18 percent from a year ago. Obama is also losing ground amongst Democrats (from 90 percent in July 2009 to 81 percent now) and Republicans (from 20 percent to 12 percent). And the latest FOX News-Opinion Dynamics poll finds that 40 percent of these swing voters are "disappointed” with Obama, and another 21 percent are "angry." More ominous for Dems: According to the FOX News poll, 55 percent of independents are “extremely” or “somewhat likely” to vote for a Republican Congressional candidate in November with the "specific intention of providing a check on Democratic control of Congress and the president."
As the New Black Panther voter intimidation scandal (video) at the Department of Justice heats up, there is likely to be further erosion in both groups. And it’s certainly not going to help matters (third item) if Attorney General Eric Holder files lawsuit after lawsuit against states that pass their own laws to curb illegal immigration and/or the economic damage it causes – especially if these cases are assigned to the “al-Qaeda bar” attorneys infesting Obama’s DOJ. How profoundly politically tone-deaf can an administration be?
Meanwhile, the WaPo also reports that “big donors on Wall Street” are in “revolt” and that contributions to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee from well-heeled NY bankers, hedge fund executives and financial services CEOs are in a “free fall”:
Although the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have seen just a 16 percent drop in overall donations compared with this stage of the 2008 campaign, party leaders are concerned about the loss of big-dollar donors. The two congressional committees have raised $49.5 million this election cycle from people giving $1,000 or more at a time, compared with $81.3 million at this point in the last election.
Almost half of that decline in large-dollar fundraising can be attributed to New York, according to a Washington Post analysis of records filed with the Federal Election Commission. Donors from that area have given $8.7 million this year, compared with $23.9 million at this point in the 2008 cycle, with most of those contributions coming from big contributors in the financial sector. New York donors had given congressional Democrats almost twice as much money at this stage of the 2006 midterm campaigns, when Republicans ruled both chambers and held the White House. …
More than 600 regular donors from the New York area - whose four- and five-figure checks added up to $10 million for the DSCC and DCCC in 2006 and 2008 - have so far abandoned their effort to retain the Democratic majorities.
One group of voters of more modest means are turning their backs on Obama as well – teachers. The New York Times reports that “in a sign of the Obama administration’s strained relations with two of its most powerful political allies” neither National Education Association nor the American Federation of Teachers invited any federal education officials to speak at their annual convention this year because “union officials feared that administration speakers would face heckling”:
“Today our members face the most anti-educator, anti-union, anti-student environment I have ever experienced,” Dennis Van Roekel, president of the union, the, told thousands of members gathered at the convention center here. …
[A] administration officials are concerned about the souring relations, and have been working to ease tempers, partly by emphasizing what they consider to be positive leadership by teachers’ unions in some regions. …
Better relations are important to the administration. Mr. Van Roekel’s association, with more than three million members, says it spent $50 million in 2008 to help elect the president and more than 50 candidates for Congress and governors’ offices, most of them Democrats.
The American Federation of Teachers, with 1.4 million members, also spent millions of dollars to help elect Mr. Obama and other candidates in 2008.
“If the teachers sit on their hands this fall, it would be a disaster for Obama and the Democrats,” said Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation who has studied the teachers’ unions.
Yup, Obama’s uniting people alright – against him and his policies. It takes a particular talent to provoke the wrath of folks from across the political and financial spectrum without even hitting the halfway mark of your only term in office.
Toldya Turkey’s Two-Faced
As Turkey Looks To West, Trial Highlights Lagging Press Freedom
- The Washington Post, July 5, 2010
Turning East, Turkey Asserts New Economic Power
- The New York Times, July 5, 2010
In Memoriam
Nicolas George Hayek (AKA “Mr. Swatch”), February 19, 1928 – June 28, 2010
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