President Obama sitting next to Sen. Patty Murray at the Grand Central Bakery in Seattle, August 17, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Larry DowningBy John Whitesides
WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 19, 2010 4:22pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With Republicans headed to big election gains on November 2, Democrats are counting on the liberal-leaning West Coast to counter the national trend and help them preserve their fragile Senate majority.
President Barack Obama heads to California and Washington state this week to drum up support for endangered incumbents Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray in the last days of a campaign that finds his Democrats playing defense around the country.
Wins in those two Democratic-leaning states -- most polls show Boxer and Murray with slight leads -- likely would be enough to ensure Democrats retain narrow control of the Senate even if Republicans sweep the other competitive races.
"Right now, Democrats have their best chances on the West Coast. They are in relatively good shape out there compared with the rest of the country," said Steven Schier, a political scientist at Carleton College in Minnesota.
Public discontent with Obama and the economy has sparked widespread predictions of a Democratic election defeat, with Republicans favored to gain more than the 39 seats they need to seize control of the House of Representatives and perhaps even the 10 seats needed for a Senate majority.
Republicans, who have 41 seats in the 100-member Senate, already hold commanding leads in races for Democratic seats in North Dakota, Arkansas and Indiana.
That leaves them needing wins in seven of eight toss-up Senate races in Democratic-held states -- California, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Illinois and West Virginia -- to regain Senate control.
"The odds are against the Republicans taking the Senate, but the odds are in favor of them getting very close," said Peter Brown, a Quinnipiac University pollster.
"It's going to come down to three or four seats that all have to go the Republicans' way," he said.
A narrow one- or two-seat Democratic majority in the Senate would almost certainly ensure partisan gridlock on Obama's legislative initiatives like climate change and immigration unless he is willing to make significant concessions.
It also would probably prompt Republicans to try to entice conservatives like Ben Nelson of Nebraska and independents like Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut to join their party as they try to repeal Obama's healthcare overhaul and cut federal spending.
OBAMA TO HELP REID
Obama also will campaign this week for threatened Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, who is in a tight battle for re-election in Nevada against a Tea Party favorite.
Incumbent Democrats Reid, Boxer and Murray, along with Michael Bennet in Colorado, Russ Feingold in Wisconsin and Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas, are in danger of falling victim to the foul public mood over the economy and government in Washington.
Boxer and Murray have solidified small leads in California and Washington in recent weeks as Democratic voters become more engaged. Democratic Senate candidates in Democratic-leaning states in the East like Connecticut and New York also have seen their leads widen.
“A narrow one- or two-seat Democratic majority in the Senate would almost certainly ensure partisan gridlock on Obama’s legislative initiatives like climate change and immigration unless he is willing to make significant concessions”
All of this gridlock bull is ridiculous. Many things have been accomplished across the aisle. Dems are losing seats because Americans don’t like Obama’s policies.
The result is gridlock?
How about compromise of which Obama has done nothing of the sort.
Unless you consider closed door sessions and reconciliation a compromise.
These bills are DOA because Obama does not want compromise, he wants in your face, screw you, Chicago politics.
Wake up America, wake up west coast.
BHOlied Report As Abusive
I hope the Dems are right. If the GOP and their corporate masters have their way they will just grease the skids of our national decline. The GOP hasn’t done anything right in twenty years. What makes anyone think they’ve got any answers to what ails us now? Oh, right, lower taxes and smaller government. Look at how well that silly mantra has worked for us in the past.
IntoTheTardis Report As Abusive
obama HELP read?? he is like “the kiss of death ” for anyone he has tried to “help” get re elected.
The country is finally on to the vision obama has of the “new” u.s. and most do not like it a bit.
chrisvb Report As Abusive
Well Barak, how would you east coast politicians and media know what is going on out here. You only show up once every four years. Otherwise you are sitting in your ivory towers or going on paid vacations. You deserve a good whippin at the poles.
fred5407 Report As Abusive
As Thanksgiving comes around the corner, aren’t we supposed to smell Turkey? Why does it smell so much like lame duck cooking? We may not be able to get him out of the office, but we can sure hogtie him (politically speaking).
Texicano Report As Abusive
Remember, Republicans want you to focus on what is going on now, so that you don’t remember what they did when they were in control. Unfortunately, SO many American voters only think of the here and now. Kind of like my dog.
idlespire Report As Abusive
Never have so many people been so anxious to vote.
Wonder why that is? Ooo, those nasty Republicans. Surely, it must be their fault.
giveitthought Report As Abusive
I’m just curious. Do Republicans really believe if McCain had won the election we’d have lower unemployment now?
Obama took on the presidency at the worst of all possible times, following 8 years of George W. Bush, 2 wars, the worst recession since the Great Depression, high unemployment, record deficits, and a very divided country. The Right’s reaction to Obama makes it clear that racism is still a major influence in America’s political landscape. Never has a president been so openly reviled and yet he’s a very centrist politician, too centrist for what we need now, and a very intelligent, hardworking, decent family man. People on the right just can’t accept having a black man as president.
I was walking my dog this morning and ran into a neighbor. She started talking about Obama and how much she can’t stand him. (She won’t say she hates him because she’s a good Christian woman.) It was interesting to me to hear her say that it wasn’t about his race or his religion. I didn’t say anything about his race or his religion. His religion? It was about his attitude toward our country, the disdain his has for America, and that we’ve never been in worse shape than we are now (because of Obama).
I found it to be very bazaar, though very telling and not surprising. I didn’t engage her in any kind of a debate because it was clear from the outset that her mind was awash in neocon Koolaid and couldn’t be reached. The morning was beautiful and I just wanted to get away from her. Apparently she was under the wrong impression that everything was fine until that black man showed up and started screwing things up (not that she has anything against black men). I also couldn’t help but wonder just what religion she thought Obama was, but it sure wasn’t her religion. She most likely believed that he is a Muslim, which of course would be a bad thing.
Since Obama is getting the blame for all of America’s miseries, a part of me wishes he had done nothing, letting America lose it’s auto industry, doing nothing to save jobs, banks, housing, doing nothing to help Americans afford health care, doing nothing about fixing the problems in Wall Street and our finance industry, and not lowering taxes on the Middle Class and small businesses. We deserve the depression we barely avoided and seem to so cravenly want. Eventually, America will get what it’s asking for. It’s sad: we’ve gotten too dumb for our Republic to function effectively.
ginchinchili Report As Abusive
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I've been using a new MacBook Air which Apple loaned me for review -- thoughts coming soon -- and it didn't take me very long to discover that it didn't have Adobe's FlashPlayer preinstalled. To be honest, I wasn't sure whether there was anything noteworthy about that -- I couldn't remember whether any Mac I'd ever used came with Flash, or whether I'd just installed it myself. In this case I did the latter (although-odd coincidence -- going to the Flash download page got me an error message at first, and I had to come back later).
Ron Howard, Marion Ross and Tom Bosley on Happy DaysEverett CollectionThe death of Happy Days star Tom Bosley left many saddened – and director Ron Howard without his onscreen dad.