A Pundit That Gets It
The first reaction I had after reading Amy Walters’ article was that she’s a pundit that gets it in terms of how much trouble the Democrats are in. Here’s the part that really struck home with me:
In the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial contests, for example, the Democratic candidates didn’t wait until the last minute to launch attacks on their opponents, and they came up short too.
In the end, attacks only work if they are believable. This is especially true when voters are angry about “real things” like the economy, the deficit and health care. As such, for Democrats to go after Chris Christie’s spotty driving record in New Jersey, or Bob McDonnell’s graduate thesis in Virginia, or Brown’s record on emergency contraception for rape victims not only seemed out of context, but also woefully out of touch with the issues that were really driving the vote.
the moral of this story is that voters don’t care about driving records, graduate theses, etc. They’re worried about the economy and whether they’ll still have jobs 3 months from now. They want to know what can be done to lower their health care costs or their health insurance premiums or both.
The Democrats’ strategy is predicated on boogeymen whereas the Republicans’ strategy is based on solutions to today’s problems. Tuesday night, I had an instant message chat with another blogger. I told my blogger friend that the Republicans’ slogan for this campaign should either be “It’s the solutions, Stupid” or “Solutions, solutions, solutions.”
That’s the centerpiece of Bob McDonnell’s campaign. That’s the centerpiece of Scott Brown’s campaign, too. They kept things simple. They talked about specific plans for reviving the economy and fixing health care without raising taxes. Independents latched onto their messages because their plans sounded plausible without spending billions of dollars.
The Democrats can’t change course anytime soon. Their nutroots base would abandon them if they changed course. Their campaign contributions would dry up instantly. Worse, Democrats that chose to stick it out would likely get primary challengers.
The worst news for Democrats is that their agenda of massive government intrusion, higher taxes and excessive spending isn’t appealing. They know that they can’t run on things like tax cuts and modest spending because progressives would stay home this November. That’s what Democrats did Tuesday.
Democrats are facing a difficult election cycle. According to Frank Luntz’s focus groups, what isn’t working is blaming President Bush for all the world’s ails. for the most part, the American people know who did what. They’ve moved. Now they’re only interested in solutions, preferably with as little government intervention as possible.
If Democrats don’t learn these lessons, then they’re facing a far worse night than last Tuesday.
Technorati Tags: Economy, Health Care, Prosperity, Independents, Scott Brown, Bob McDonnell, Conservatism, Martha Coakley, Jon Corzine, Democrats, Election 2010, Wave Election
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog