A New Hope
Why Democrats' chances of avoiding disaster in November have improved … slightly.
Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Apr 30, 2010
Politically speaking, things have stopped getting worse and might be marginally better for the Democrats. Voters are starting to see what's in it for them in the health-care reform bill, and the Republicans lost their unified front against wildly popular Wall Street reform, teeing up another big win for President Obama and the Democrats.
Now all Obama has to do is convince the voters that this is, in fact, the change they clamored for when they went to the polls in November 2008, and if they don't want to regress, they can show their support by voting Democratic in the upcoming midterm elections. Fifteen million first-time voters gave Obama his margin of victory in '08, and a lot of them won't show up in November. They still support him, but they're disappointed that change didn't unfold as they envisioned, and off-year elections lack the energy and enthusiasm of a historic candidate in a presidential year.
Motivating these new voters is the only way Obama and the Democrats can stave off disaster in November. They are predominantly young, and they're minorities, African-American and Hispanic. When DNC chairman Tim Kaine announced that the party was revving up presidential-level money, $50 million, to get these voters to turn out and for "voter protection" to ensure they could exercise their right to vote unimpeded, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele accused him of playing the race card—which would be a new reading of politics—and of suggesting that the GOP engages in voter suppression.
(More here.)
Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Apr 30, 2010
Politically speaking, things have stopped getting worse and might be marginally better for the Democrats. Voters are starting to see what's in it for them in the health-care reform bill, and the Republicans lost their unified front against wildly popular Wall Street reform, teeing up another big win for President Obama and the Democrats.
Now all Obama has to do is convince the voters that this is, in fact, the change they clamored for when they went to the polls in November 2008, and if they don't want to regress, they can show their support by voting Democratic in the upcoming midterm elections. Fifteen million first-time voters gave Obama his margin of victory in '08, and a lot of them won't show up in November. They still support him, but they're disappointed that change didn't unfold as they envisioned, and off-year elections lack the energy and enthusiasm of a historic candidate in a presidential year.
Motivating these new voters is the only way Obama and the Democrats can stave off disaster in November. They are predominantly young, and they're minorities, African-American and Hispanic. When DNC chairman Tim Kaine announced that the party was revving up presidential-level money, $50 million, to get these voters to turn out and for "voter protection" to ensure they could exercise their right to vote unimpeded, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele accused him of playing the race card—which would be a new reading of politics—and of suggesting that the GOP engages in voter suppression.
(More here.)
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