In 1948, President Harry S Truman reversed his political fortunes and avoided what then-seemed a long certain defeat by running not just against his Republican opponent, Tom Dewey, but also against the first Republican Congress elected since the New Deal.
Tagging the 80th Congress a “do-nothing” legislature (as he did throughout the campaign), Truman told voters in Charleston, West Virginia on October 1 of that year:
The Republicans would like you to forget these fundamental differences between the two parties. But during the past 2 years we have been given a sharp warning that these differences still exist, and these differences are wide and deep.
. . . .
I know, of course, that there are many fine people throughout the United States, who from habit or choice are members of the Republican Party. To them I say that the national leadership of their party has failed them miserably.
With the current Democratic Congress’s approval as historic lows (making George W. Bush seem downright popular by comparison), it would seem John McCain would do well to run a similar campaign against the do-nothing 110th as a reminder of a stark difference between the parties.
It seems the only thing the Democratic Congress has been able to do has to be to increase federal spending at levels even greater than those of the preceding spendthrift Republican Congresses. Having scored his congressional colleagues in the past for spending money “like a drunken sailor,” John McCain should have found a profligate Democratic Congress a natural target.
But, maybe, the presidential election has prevented the incompetence of this Congress from exciting as much interest as it should. No sooner did Democrats take over in 2007 than the 2008 race for the White House began. And that seems to have turned media attention away from the Capitol and to the hustings.
The unending presidential campaign may well have prevented a campaign against Congress from really resonating.
“Running against Congress” would have been effective if McCain wasn’t a serving-Senator, but as a current member he just comes-across like an unindicted co-conspirator trying to deflect suspicion away from himself. The total failure of the Pelosi-Reid regime on the Hill should have been a golden opportunity to counter-campaign against the Democrats running against Bush-43.
The McCain campaign since the GOP Convention has been a dimal failure…and they totally mishandled Palin rather than playing to her inherent strengths.
And now that “Obama is a Socialist” is all over the place, the McCain campaign isn’t telling the masses WHY socialism is not American (let alone anit-American). A good civics lesson might help.
So many missed opportunies… Such a shame…
Yesterday I wrote about how John McCain shouldn’t necessarily be running way from George Bush either- possibly he should walk, but you don’t run away from a two-term President to adopt the positions of this Democratic Congress.
NY (D) Congressman Tim Bishop is up for re-election this term. Our district’s property taxes have close to doubled over the past 3 years despite the fact that the value of our home has not. He also managed to get a wind powered turbine built at our now defunct Southampton College. No students, no teachers, no classes. But at least the vacant campus is saving a bundle on electricity. Despite this and countless other foibles, my left-leaning neighbors are likely to give him another 2 years on The Hill for no other reason than he has a D in front of his name. Bishop may get in for one more term but with my vote.
Unfortunately, McCain would be implicating himself along with Congress to some extent if he took the tack you recommend. Better to hammer on Obama’s big-spending and taxing policies. As president, McCain could turn his attention to the Congress and its do-nothing, know-it-all, illuminati rogues.
On a related note: Democrat Senate Candidate Steals Republican Tape Recorder from Debate Podium. Apparently, it was done just to be childish. The Democrat Party always seems to be more juvenile, and some things Obama has done (giving Hillary the finger, deliberately mispronouncing the name of Sarah Palin’s hometown as ‘Wasilly’) have really struck me as childish, too. There seems to be a scarcity of grown-ups in the Democrat party.
And then there’s Claire McCaskill spitting on Mitt Romney’s earpiece. Totally childish.
Part of the Alinsky Method is to mock your opponent. Alinsky says that is because it infuriates the person you are mocking and yet he will have a hard time responding to it without appearing childish.
I don’t think Dems are incompetent — well in the way you mean — there’s two reasons they haven’t gotten anything done;
1) to not rock the boat, and
2) biding their time. why pass compromise legislation now when they think they can just wait til next year and get everything they want