California Conservative

Thanks to President Obama’s bailout fever, irresponsible spending and his breaking every major campaign promise, Republicans are now being seen in a better light. In this week’s WSJ column, Karl Rove highlights why President Obama has helped Republicans for 2010:

With the Dow at 7,486 and unemployment at 8.1%, Mr. Obama says the economy is fundamentally sound. Does he suppose the nation won’t recall him attacking John McCain last September for saying the same thing, when the Dow was at 11,000 and unemployment at 6.2%?

Candidate Obama vowed to end “the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics.” Yet his administration geared up MoveOn.org to lead a left-wing coalition to pressure Republicans and centrist Democrats, organized a daily conference call to coordinate liberal attack dogs, and strategized with Americans United for Change on ads depicting the GOP as the party of “no.”

I’m becoming convinced that President Obama believes he can whatever he wants and get away with it. I think that’s because he’s gotten away with that for his entire adult life. Yesterday, I wrote about President Obama’s incompetence in this post. Included in that post was proof that President Obama isn’t helping Democrats in the run-up to 2010. I’m officially nicknaming the this phenomenom the Obama Effect. Here’s what I’m talking about:

Support for the Democratic Congressional candidates fell to a new low over the past week, allowing the GOP to move slightly head for the first time in recent years in the Generic Congressional Ballot. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 41% said they would vote for their district’s Republican candidate while 39% would choose the Democrat.

At a time when the economy is the all-consuming issue, President Obama isn’t offering a steady hand in times of trouble. People got upset with the way Congress pushed the stimulus bill through without reading what’s in their bill. People got upset with President Obama for pushing the bill’s quick passage. The people felt cheated because they knew that their senators and representatives didn’t read the bill before voting on it. They felt cheated because they knew about all the pork contained in the bill.

They’re more furious now that they’re learning about the AIG bonus exemption provision inserted in the bill by Christopher Dodd at the Treasury Department’s request.

The GOP’s resurgence isn’t only about President Obama’s irresponsible policies either, as Mr. Rove notes here:

Republicans sense the opportunity. The House GOP leadership deputized the top Budget Committee Republican, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, to prepare an alternative budget. The GOP budget won’t raise taxes, gets spending and debt under control, and will result in a stronger economy with more jobs. House Republicans plan a major selling effort back home during the coming recess. Minority Leader John Boehner is already up on YouTube extolling the plan.

Senate Republicans will not prepare a complete alternative, but they will offer a robust package of amendments, with a wave of proposals for each of the three weeks the upper chamber will devote to the budget. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander foreshadowed the GOP’s theme by saying the Democratic budget taxes, spends and borrows too much.

Giving Rep. Paul Ryan the responsibility of crafting an alternative budget is a smart tactical move because he’s gaining the reputation of being the smartest man in the room on economic policy. Based on what I’ve seen, he’s looking like this generation’s John Kasich in terms of budgetary matters.

Mr. Rove notes this information, which should give Democrats heartburn:

For example, the liberal Center for American Progress recently found that 61% of Americans say government spending is almost always wasteful and inefficient, and 57% think free market solutions are better than government at creating jobs and economic growth. A late February poll by NBC News/Wall Street Journal found that 61% were concerned “the federal government will spend too much money” and “drive up the budget deficit” versus 29% concerned the government “will spend too little.”

Liberal pundits can’t stop talking about President Obama’s popularity, though they don’t mention how unpopular his policies are. Ruy Teixeira still insists that we’re living in a new progressive America. While progressives won alot of races the last two cycles, that doesn’t mean we’ve suddenly morphed into a center-left nation only four years after pundit after pundit said America was a center-right nation.

There’s several political lifetimes between now and the midterm elections so lots of things will happen to change the trajectory of the election. Still, at this point, it’s still worth Republicans’ while to thank President Obama for his stumbling, erratic administration.

Ttechnonrati: Economy, President Obama, Bailout Fatigue, Stimulus Bill, AIG Bonuses, Earmarks, Democrats, Paul Ryan, John Kasich, Fiscal Restraint, Conservatism, Polling, Generic Ballot, Election 2010

Cross-posted at California Conservative

Technorati Tags: Economy, President Obama, Bailout Fatigue, Stimulus Bill, AIG Bonuses, Earmarks, Democrats, Paul Ryan, John Kasich, Fiscal Restraint, Conservatism, Polling, Generic Ballot, Election 2010

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 2:17 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Conservatism, Corruption, Economy, Elections, Obama, Special Interests, Subversives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.