Posted by: McQ on Friday, December 21, 2007 Reality begins to dawn in Congress: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, despite their pledges to continue pushing to end the war in Iraq, face growing pressure from their rank-and-file Democrats to focus more attention on domestic, “pocketbook” issues in the upcoming election year.Or course there are two reasons for that: one, with progress in Iraq, they look foolish using pre-surge rhetoric to describe the present situation there. It simply doesn't fit anymore as is obvious in these quotes. After 40 attempts to effect or end the war and 40 losses, many taken earlier when there was at least an outside chance of passage, reality has set in for most of the Dems. Two, the war is becoming less and less visible through the media. As less violence and carnage are evident, less coverage results. Kevin at Pundit Review notes a "Media Reality Check" from Media Research which demonstrates the point and provides us with this graphic representation of it:
Obviously less media coverage translates into less immediacy in terms of popular attention toward the war. And that, of course, means that the war has become less than a political winner as hot and divisive issue, and could become a huge liability if they keep attention focused on it as they are right now. So they want to shift focus away from the war and on to domestic issues. They plan to make the economy a major issue according to DNC chair Howard Dean: "The economy is really alarming a lot of Americans," he says, noting that people are afraid of losing their homes and their jobs. In a year-end interview with U.S. News, he added that the party of an incumbent president usually pays a severe price when the economy goes bad—and that's what will happen to the Republicans in next year's election.So they will now try to convince us that an economy that showed an unrevised growth rate last quarter of 4.9% is sick and collapsing. Yes, folks, the "good news" Dems are back. How well that message will sell remains to be seen, but Dean's next line is probably the truest statement of what is going on politically: Overall, Dean says, "The country wants a new direction and has seen the Republicans are not going to supply it."This will be a populist campaign next year, regardless of who is running for the Dems (although Hillary will have a harder time selling herself as a populist candidate than would Obama or Edwards) and they will indeed try to sell us on the domestic side of things vs. Iraq. Iraq, will fade. The economy, health care and other bread and butter domestic issues will be how the Dems try to frame the debate. If they're successful with the framing, and if the Congressional Democratic leaders heed the message about leaving Iraq alone, they may actually see the success they anticipate in '08. But of course stubbornness isn't, apparently, a trait only George Bush enjoys. Says Nancy Pelosi: “This will always be the pre-eminent issue until it is not there any more,” she said.And with that attitude, it may end up eclipsing everything you hope to do next year. One can hope. |
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