Democrat Leadership To Candidates: Please Don’t Talk About Our Accomplishments
The way most people understand politics, it works like this: A candidate runs on a platform. A candidate gets elected. The candidate then advances that platform in the halls of power and, when the time comes, campaigns on his/her achievements in advancing that platform.
That’s, uh, not how it’s working for the Democrats this year. They’d like to avoid reminding voters of what they’ve accomplished over the last couple of years.
As Democrats fan out across the country to campaign for reelection this month, many are surprisingly quiet about their hard-won accomplishments — the major bills they have passed under President Obama.
In an effort coordinated with the White House, congressional leaders are urging Democrats to focus less on bragging about what they have done — a landmark healthcare law, a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulation and other far-reaching policy changes — and more on efforts to fix the economy and on the perils of Republican control of Congress…
Democratic strategists privately acknowledge that their party’s legislative record, while far-reaching and popular with party regulars, has limited political benefit in swing districts and in a stubbornly sluggish economy.
“Our candidates’ job is not to sell the accomplishments of the past but to send a message that strikes a chord,” said a senior Democratic advisor who did not want to be identified while discussing strategy. “I am not one who thinks our candidates should go out and sell healthcare reform. They have to stay focused on jobs, the economy and shaking up Washington.”
“Shaking up Washington.” That’s funny, given that Washington is dominated by Democrats right now. If voters truly vote to “shake up Washington” they’ll be voting against incumbents. That’ll mean a bloodbath at the polls for Democrats.
By the way, other polls have showed that even though Obama has achieved a good deal of his agenda, he’s not very popular because of it. Maybe that’s because Americans never really wanted that agenda?
Meanwhile, in Texas, the Democrat candidate for Governor celebrated President Obama’s visit to the state by…attending fundraisers on the other side of the state.
Tags: Barack Obama, democrats, election 2010
