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Popular tide turning against Dems
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Tuesday it looked as if the tide had turned against the Obama Administration and the Democratic Party.* For starters, there was the election (from the Associated Press):
Independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for Republicans on Tuesday as the GOP wrested political control from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year.
As the article states, independent voters were the major factor in both the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races – the same independent voters that rallied behind Obama and swept him into the Oval Office one year ago. After 10 months under our current leader, non-partisans are retracting their support.
In addition to the electoral defeat, there appears to be another roadblock to Obama’s plan for America:
His signature issue of health care reform was dealt a blow hours before polls closed when Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid signaled that Congress may not complete health care legislation this year, missing Obama's deadline and pushing debate into a congressional election year.
All this is adding up to fuel disillusionment with the current administration, which has been big on promises and short on execution.
Finally there was the premiere of ABC’s television series V, a reworking of the 80’s television program of the same name. The pilot episode features a race of extra-terrestrials landing on earth ostensibly to pick up some water in exchange for sharing some of their technology. They claim to be ‘of peace, always,’ and are led by a charismatic and calm personality who enjoys the full adoration of the media and the youth. They want to give us Universal Health Care (seriously). Also, they’re really lizards dressed up in human skin gaining our trust in order to eat us. As ridiculous as that sounds, the show is very well done and impressively entertaining.
The fact that V was a hit critically and commercially can’t sit very well with the White House, because it was rather hard to watch the show without picking up on the obvious admonishments regarding Obamamania and our own lap-dog media. It will be interesting to see how ABC develops this storyline (how effectively can the media excoriate itself for power-worship?), and even more interesting to watch voices on the left react.
*This is in no way an endorsement of the Republicans; may a pox descend on both their houses.
