Economy Meltdown a GOP nightmare...

[nradisic]

The stars are aligned for the Democrats....No matter how hard the Dems try to be weak, they still hold the upper hand. The melting credit markets and the coming economic donturn is only going to make the situation worse for the GOP in 2008. I see the House and Senate going to a veto proof majority for the Dems....The Republicans are on their way, thanks to Karl Rove are being relegated to the "regional majority"....after 2008 they will hold the deep south and that's it. It does not matter what the Dems do or don't do at this point. The negatives of the GOP will be impossible to overcome for the next generation. Well deserved you freakin' scum!

[iconoclastic cat]

1. I'm a bit afraid of what they'll do on their way out. Like Iran. nt

[screembloodymurder]

2. It doesn't matter.

The damage has been done.

[jamesinca]

3. Who owns the Wall Street Journal and WaPo now?

Rupert Murdoch. So regardless of how bad the economy is under a Republic it will be touted as great, and just the opposite under a Democratic president in those two papers. Secondly they will say that the economy failed when a Dem took over, or it failed during Bush because of lingering effects of Clinton, or fears by business of a Democratic president, or fears from Democrats controlling congress. Remember Clinton's economy was because of Reagan/Bush. Unless the Democrats get out and talk to people this is all they will hear IMO.

[notundecided]

6. If the economy goes down the tubes you won't have to read a newspaper to know about it

[jamesinca]

8. You won't have to read a paper

But all of the Murdoch empire will scream that it is the Dems fault. Millions of people will hear that it is the Dems fault. No you won't have to read a paper to know the economy sucks, but you will hear it is the Dems fault.

[rasputin1952]

13. You won't be able to afford a paper....

:(

[LBJDemocrat]

11. Murdoch doesn't own WaPo as far as I know nt

[Dawgs]

4. The 'not so funny' thing is that just before the latest crash (two weeks ago)...

The Republican talk show hosts were all using the market to brag about how great the economy is doing.

[PassingFair]

7. Yeah, you must be a TOTAL LOSER if you're not doing well in this BOOMING economy!

:sarcasm:

[hatrack]

5. Yeah, it was supposed to happen a year from now, so the next Prez. would have to clean ALL of it up

But it's too early - four full quarters of opportunities to lie, distort spin and otherwise shovel happy horseshit to the viewers of CNBC.

"CNBC - Because you don't have the attention span to read a prospectus!"

[CK_John]

9. Depends on which plan B they use. Buy up the failed mortgages and save their

pals or restart the "draft" so they can pretend to be FDR. Which sick plan will Karl choose.

[PurityOfEssence]

10. When talking of the Democrats, remember: failure is always possible

Not being a sports fan, I still understand what it must be like to be a Cubs fan: my to equivalent sporting enthusiasm is following and being involved in politics.

The Democrats are impressive in their ability to throw away incredible advantages and fall flat on their faces. In fact, this kind of hubris is most worrisome to me of late: many who are aware of Hillary's dicey possibilities are still so enthused either with her or with the fact of a woman having a chance to be president that they're willing to overlook the danger of the negatives because the right is so whipped and pathetic right now. The sheer illogic of all this is breathtaking: these same people will look you straight in the face and be incredulous that anyone could vote for these primitives and bigots right after they trounce us, yet turn right around and KNOW that nobody will support them NOW. How one's ignorance is proof of one's perspicacity makes as little sense as the "watchmaker" theory that's used as proof of the existence of a supreme being. If something's beyond your comprehension, that's not evidence that you know the answer, that's evidence that you DON'T.

Here we are doing 20 plus knots through an iceberg field and the derision one gets when reminding people of pesky reality is pouring forth from curled lips under rolling eyeballs as far as one can see.

Now that we're forcing through a gas tax, when gas prices go up it will ALL BE THE DEMOCRATS' FAULT. If we experience a big financial meltdown, it can EASILY be skewed as the fault of Congress. Reality schmeality; Americans have the long-distance thinking of the average fruit fly.

As everyone scrambles to shorten the primary season even more, we ignore the lessons of history: the longer the primary season, the better chance we have of picking someone who can really take it and dish it out, and the less time the nominee has to endure the concentrated hammering from the opposition. To be successful, you don't selfishly force your opinions on others, you find where your views intersect with enough people to be practical. The "we're gonna show 'em now" version of politics is brazen selfish imbecility and bespeaks a disdain for the sense and very lives of others.

Every season there's a HUGE camp of acolytes of the latest fad candidate(s) telling the rest of us how "it's a new reality now" and that "the lessons of the past don't apply". We're destined to relive Groundhog Day far too many times even if we do win every so often.

'94 never should have happened, but a lot of it was Democratic hubris and Clinton's ineptitude: many gays see fit to bash him endlessly right now (and I'm no fan either) but they forget how he went after gays in the military the moment he got into office. He did this because he was filled with the belief that the darkness of twelve years of atavism had ushered in some bright new era of progress and he didn't need to look over his shoulder. Boy, was he wrong, and boy did we pay for it. (No, the '94 downfall wasn't just because of this; it's just an example of antagonizing the opposition rather than building coalitions and being careful.) Imagine what the 90s could have been like had the House held for the Dems.

Of course, this will be dismissed by many as pessimistic and the historical parallels will be poo-pooed as we're Mondaled into having an establishment front-runner who's irretrievably tarred with the past rammed down our throats, but it's still not too late to gag and cough her out and avoid our dismal fate. You've heard it before by plenty of other people; there might just be some truth to it.

We can lose the presidency. There can be a total meltdown of the economy, a blood-spattered disaster in Iraq complete with helicopter evacuation on the roofs in the Green Zone and WE CAN STILL LOSE. The idea that we're bullet-proof is absurd.

[TheFarseer]

12. are you sure the Dems won't get the blame?

They will have had the majority for 2 years. I'm just saying, and you know how bad the spin machine is.

[rasputin1952]

14. We have every possibility of winning the whole shooting match...

but just look around you here on DU, there are many who would rather hash over simplistic arguments than try to get the candidates to deal w/real problems. Once again, we have become the party of diverse ideology.

There is nothing wrong w/individuals making their points known, but on the larger issues, we have to come together, and pretty quickly.

I have yet to see one of the D candidates take on the larger issues. They hem and haw, and it becomes a blood feud, not just between them, but between us as well. We are far better than that, and I, for one, hope that someone either breaks from the pack and shows true leadership, or someone else gets in and deals with the things that will bring this country to it's knees in a few short months or years.

The "Do Nothing" congress of the R's created this mess, under the tutelage of the idiot in the WH...WE, as a party, need to ensure we get this nation back on track and keep it that way. We've done it before after R screw-ups, we can do it again, but it will take willpower, sacrifice and leadership. The pain lasts but a short time, the benefits will far outweigh the pain.