In Case You Hadn't Noticed, There's An Election Coming Up....

Over the past few weeks, I've been spending a lot of time that I usually spend blogging reading about the 2010 elections, which explains why the posting has been light lately. I think Sean Hannity is not too far off the mark when he says that this is the most important election in our lifetimes. It is incredibly vital that we the people send as strong a message as possible to our government that we will not tolerate the Obama/Reid/Pelosi agenda of reckless spending, higher taxes, ballooning deficits, and socialized health care. In order to send that message, Republicans must perform well on Election Day. They must at least meet, if not exceed, expectations. Anything less than taking over the House represents failure, and I think they also need to at least make it to 49 or 50 seats in the Senate. I would strongly urge my readers not to sit this election out. Vote -- and encourage your family, friends, and co-workers to vote as well. If you have the ability and inclination, donate to or volunteer for competitive races in your state or district. And, most importantly, pray for God to give us wise and honest leaders that will take our country in the right direction.

To me, this election is less about rewarding Republicans and more about punishing Democrats for their massive overreach. The Democrats in Congress, led by President Obama and Speaker Pelosi, have deliberately moved forward on a radical big government agenda, despite a staggering national debt and the strong opposition of a clear majority of the American people. They were warned over and over again, through townhall meetings, polls, rallies, and an overwhelming wave of letters and phone calls from constituents -- yet even many supposedly moderate Blue Dog Democrats ignored the voice of the people. And Obama's deliberate strategy has been to demonize that voice, accusing Tea Partiers and townhall activists of being racists and extremists (not to mention ignorant and stupid). I have not been around the block that many times, but I have never seen such blatant disregard for the will of American voters. Members of Congress need to know that there are consequences for this arrogance. If voters do not send a stinging rebuke on November 2, this disregard for the will of the American people will only get worse in the future. For the sake of our future, we must prove that we are not as stupid and uninformed as they think and that we are prepared to hold them accountable for their actions. Certainly Republicans will disappoint us from time to time if they regain the majority, but we can at least be sure they will stand against the excesses of the Obama Administration and bring back a desperately needed balance to our government.

It is interesting to note how this election is shaping up. By and large, Republicans are the only ones running on issues. They are talking about reducing the deficit, repealing ObamaCare and replacing it with free market solutions, opposing cap-and-trade, reducing taxes and regulations to stimulate the economy, controlling our borders, finding solutions to Social Security, and many other substantive solutions. What are the Democrats running on? Well, individual candidates are not running on their support for ObamaCare, or their support for cap-and-trade, or their support for more spending and higher deficits. Most of them are running away from their records as fast as possible. The only House Democrats talking about ObamaCare and cap-and-trade are the ones who voted against those bills. And of course, they can't run on how they've improved the economy, or created jobs, or fixed the illegal immigration problem, or drained the ethical "swamp" in Washington, or improved partisan gridlock. Instead, by their own admission, the Democrats' almost exclusive strategy is to try to tear down and destroy their GOP opponents in any way possible. They are digging up all sorts of dirt from the past, in some cases turning to stories decades old, and saturating the airwaves with personal attacks. Some of them have been blatantly false, such as Alan Grayson's infamous "Taliban Dan" ad. They can't run on their record, so they are opting for the scorched earth strategy.

Of course, the Obama Administration has not been idle either. Their "strategy" is also to demonize the opposition, and their attacks have become increasingly shrill and partisan as well. The only problem is that they can't seem to decide who the target of this opposition is. It changes on a weekly basis. Over the month or two, they have focused their firepower, in rapid succession, on...John Boehner, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, the Tea Party movement, and, most bizarrely, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (an organization that supports Democrats as well as Republicans). Their claim that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is "threatening democracy" by funding election campaigns with foreign money is so completely devoid of proof that even liberal Bob Schieffer of Face the Nation asked in astonishment, "Three weeks from election day, is this the best you have?" Of course, these attacks are only resulting in increased publicity and fundraising for Obama's targets -- Karl Rove's organization raised more than $14 million in the week following the President's attack. These attacks are doing nothing to help their precarious situation, because they are not talking about what the American people are concerned about. Voters don't care about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, or Karl Rove, or Fox News. They care about jobs and the economy and the deficit and taxes and spending and health care. Obama just looks increasingly partisan and even irrelevant, and is making it next to impossible for Democrats to win over the very independents and moderates they need to be successful in swing districts across the country.

Even Obama and Biden's appeals to their base seem to fall flat. Obama comes across as a lecturer, telling Democrats that "they'd better be motivated" and that he "needs them to be fired up" and saying that if "folks want to take their ball and go home, that just tells me they weren't serious in the first place." Meanwhile, Biden calls out partisan crowds for not showing enough enthusiasm (while also saying he wants to "strangle" Republicans for talking about balancing the budget). Uh, I have news for the White House crowd. You don't get your base excited by telling them to be excited. Passion isn't a switch to be turned off and on at will. Voters are passionate when you give them a reason to be passionate about. They get excited when they see results. And frankly, it's pretty hard to get excited about a 9.6% unemployment rate.

So, yes, the Republicans are going to win big this year. I will be updating my detailed Senate and governor's predictions soon, but suffice it to say that the Republicans will probably at least come close to taking the Senate, and will probably gain around 10 governor's seats as well. Almost all of the nonpartisan forecasters agree that the Democrats will lose the House, and the only question is the margin. I think the margin could be sizable. It's going to get nasty at the end, and Obama and his party are going to do everything possible to destroy GOP candidates, but in the end the "cake is baked." I can't wait for November 2!