Republicans Will Benefit From the Democrats' Paralysis

I'm in a foul mood politically today, no doubt. Therefore this piece made sense to me. I think the Democrats are headed for a drubbing next November, losing significant seats in both houses of Congress for the reasons listed.

Democrats could go, in two short years, from winning once-in-a-generation majorities in both houses of Congress to something very like the 1994 fiasco which swept them from power. Now, many on the Left discount such dire warnings, thinking complacently: "Democrats are moving slow, true, but there's just no way the public will vote the Republicans back in power, since they're the ones who got us into all these messes." Such thinking ignores two very important constants in American politics: the public has a very short attention span, and likewise a very short memory; and secondly, the public has very little tolerance for politicians not being able to get anything done. If the Democrats have crushing losses next year, we pundits will waste a lot of ink and electrons debating whether it was an anti-Democratic, pro-Republican, or just anti-incumbent "wave" among the populace, but none of it will change the outcome one whit after the fact. Given the duality of our two-party system, if people are annoyed with Democrats for whatever reason, then Republicans are the ones who will benefit. That's the way the game's played in America.

That in turn will force Obama to 'triangulate' even more, akin to what Clinton had to do. And that will mean the end of 'yes we can.' Obama becomes a caretaker President instead of a transformational President he was supposed to be.