Sean Trende over at Real Clear Politics paints a dismal picture for Democrats this fall. Among other things,
President Obama's policy choices to date are wreaking havoc on the brand that Democrats cultivated carefully over the past twenty years. Bill Clinton worked long and hard to make it so that voters could say "fiscal conservative" and "Democrat" in the same sentence, but voters are finding it difficult to say that again.Unfortunately, voters have been finding it difficult to say "fiscal conservative" and "Republican" in the same sentence as well. But that could be changing. The prognosis:
If brand damage is truly seeping over into Congressional races - and the polling suggests it is - then the Democrats are in very, very deep trouble this election. There is a very real risk that they could be left with nothing more than Obama's base among young, liberal, and minority voters, which is packed into relatively few Congressional districts. It would be the Dukakis map transformed onto the Congressional level, minus the support in Appalachia.Consequences. Read the rest.
