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Opinions/Editorials Title: Suicide Democrats: Earning the public's disgust Rushing to lock the nation into expensive health-care and climate-change commitments, Democrats are in an understandable frenzy because public enthusiasm for both crusades has been inversely proportional to the time the public has had to think about them. And the president pushing this agenda has seen his job-approval vary inversely with his ubiquity. Consider his busy December -- so far. His Dec. 1 Afghanistan speech to the nation was followed on Dec. 3 by his televised "jobs summit." His Dec. 8 televised economics speech at the Brookings Institution was followed on Dec. 10 by his televised Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech -- which was remarkable for 38 uses of the pronoun "I." And for disavowing a competence no one suspected him of. ("I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war." Note the superfluous adjective.) And for an unnecessary notification. ("Evil does exist in the world.") And for delayed utopianism. ("We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes." But in someone's.) And for solemnly announcing something undisputed. (There can be a just war.) Then on Dec. 13, he was on "60 Minutes" praising himself with another denigration of his predecessor, a k a "the last eight years." (Blighted by "a triumphant sense about war.") Abroad, the fruits of the president's policy of "engagement" have been meager: Witness Iran continuing its nuclear program and China being difficult about carbon emissions. Here is a history lesson for an administration which, considering itself the culmination of history, is interested only in the last eight years of it: At the Vienna summit in June 1961, President John Kennedy, fresh from his Bay of Pigs fiasco, was unnerved by the brutal disdain of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who considered Kennedy callow. Britain's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan astutely noted Kennedy had "met a man who was impervious to his charm." A person can only be a novelty once, and only briefly, and charm, like any commodity, when used uneconomically becomes a wasting asset. All this is pertinent to the Senate health-care debate, now coming to a curious climax amid another glut of careless grandiosity. Supporters of the Senate bill say it will insure the uninsured. The Congressional Budget Office says 24 million of the 46.3 million uninsured will remain so. Supporters say it will lower aggregate and individual health care spending. The government's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services says the nation's health-care spending and insurance-premium costs will increase. Today there are more independents than Democrats, more independents than Republicans -- and, in a recent Gallup poll, independents' approval of the Democratic-controlled Congress (14 percent) is lower than Republicans' approval (17 percent). This is partly a function of the majority party's health-care monomania. Consider what happened recently in Kentucky, where a GOP candidate succeeded in nationalizing a state Senate race. Hugely outspent in a district in which Democrats have a lopsided registration advantage, the Republican won by 12 points a seat in Frankfort by running against Washington -- against Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and their health-care legislation. A CNN poll shows 36 percent of the public in favor of what the Democratic Senate is trying to do to health care, 61 percent opposed. It is clear what the public wants Congress to do: Take a mulligan and start over. So Republicans can win in 2009 by stopping the bill, or in 2010 by saying: Unpopular health legislation passed because of a 60-40 party-line decision to bring it to a Senate vote. Therefore each incumbent Democrat is responsible for everything in the law.
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#1. To: borntoweardiamonds (#0)
By this time next year there will be forty million new Democrat voters that will ensure that the Dems not only remain a majority but increase their margins. The average American will have gone back to sleep but that will not matter anyway. With the thin margins in most elections these forty million new voters will be the force needed to destroy the country. The Dems know this and that is why they really don't give a crap what we think. They know they are going to win no matter what. Unlike the stupid party they actuially play to win.
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