The Midwest was a region that went deep blue in both the 2006 and 2008 election cycles. The Christos Himself, Our Lord and Savior Barack Hussein Obama, carried every Midwestern state except Missouri, including Indiana, the first time a Democrat had won Indiana since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.
Guess what? The Democrats are in deep, deep trouble in the Midwest in 2010, facing an electoral wipeout in the midterms.
Right now, Democrats hold the governor’s mansion in all but two of the Midwestern states, Minnesota and Indiana. Both of the Republicans governors, Tim Pawlenty in Minnesota and Mitch Daniels in Indiana, are leaving office via term limits, but both states are likely to stay red.
The other states are blue, held by Democrats. Jennifer Granholm in Michigan, Ted Strickland in Ohio, Pat Quinn in Illinois, Chet Culver in Iowa, Jay Nixon in Missouri and Jim Doyle in Wisconsin. Nixon is not on the ballot; Granholm is leaving office via term limits, and Doyle is not seeking re-election. Culver, Quinn and Strickland are running for re-election.
All three are in deep, deep trouble. Quinn, who became governor, when his corrupt predecessor Rod Blagojovich, was impeached and removed from office for offering a U.S. Senate seat for sale to the highest bidder, trails his Republican opponent, Bill Brady. National Democrat groups are abandoing Strickland in Ohio, who trails Republican John Kasich by almost 20 points in the polls, and even a GOP retread in Terry Branson should oust Culver in Iowa.
In Michigan, Republican Rick Snyder, a political newcomer, leads the Democrat, Virg Bernero by double digits, and here in Wisconsin, Republican Scott Walker has an eight-point advantage over Democrat Tom Barrett, perceived as the third term of Doyle, who is leaving office with approval numbers in the low 30s.
What happened? Welcome to Obamamerica, land of high taxes, skyrocketing debt, disappearing jobs, recession and a bad economy. Everything going wrong on a national level is going wrong in these states, run by the same pack of lefties that drove the national economy into a ditch.
The Politico takes a look at the doom and gloom facing Democrats in America’s Heartland:
“There’s little doubt that the Midwest is the Democrats’ toughest region this year,” Democratic pollster Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling wrote on the firm’s website Friday, adding that the firm is also finding an enthusiasm gap of about 10 points down from what existed in 2008.
“If the election was today the party would almost certainly lose the Governorships it holds in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. It’s also more than likely at this point to lose the Senate seats it has in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Indiana, miss out on a once promising pick up opportunity in Ohio, and quite possibly lose their seat in Illinois as well. And there are too many House seats the party could lose in the region to count,” Jensen noted.
Top GOP pollster Glen Bolger of Public Opinion Strategies wrote in even harsher terms last week: “The Midwest is going to be a killing field for Democrats this year from western [Pennsylvania] through to the Plains, Republicans are going to sweep a LOT of Democrats right out of office.”
The states in question magnify what’s happening elsewhere in the country: dissatisfaction with Obama, unrest with Washington in general over major legislation that voters feel has merely piled onto the national debt, and the steady erosion of jobs.
“There’s two major factors. One is that there are a lot of swing voters, as well as a lot of Reagan Democrat voters, in the Midwest, and therefore I think the national mood hits harder,” said Saul Anuzis, the former Michigan Republican Party chairman. “And secondly you’re talking about record unemployment.”
But there’s also the enthusiasm gap, the flight of independent voters, unpopular Democratic governors in each state and Obama’s own sinking approval ratings, PPP found.
Anuzis said there had been very high expectations of Obama, and that the crash from such a high has been a bitter pill for voters to swallow.
To emphasize how poorly the Democrats are faring in the Midwest, they are actually polling worse in the region than in the South, which is a traditionally poor area for Democrats:
Bolger cited generic ballot data he’s just conducted showing the Democrats faring even worse in the Midwest than in the South. His numbers show Democrats getting 35 percent in that key region, compared to 39 percent in the South, which is a Republican stronghold.
In both regions, the generic Republican captures 47 percent.
The number one issue? Jobs and the economy. Nationally, the Democrats have been in control since January 2007, when they regained control of Congress and have had total control of Washington since January 2009. Many of the Midwestern states have had Democrat rule for four to eight years.
And the people have had enough of high taxes, wasteful government spending, bad economic policies that are job-killers. The only employment sector that’s growing anywhere lately is government.
It’s not just governor’s races that have Democrats in trouble. Congressional races — House and Senate — look to flip from blue to red as well. Entrenched Sen. Russ Feingold in Wisconsin is in trouble, trailing Republican Ron Johnson by anywhere from eight to 11 points. Obama’s former Senate seat looks likely to go to Republican Mark Kirk over corruptocrat Alexi Giannoulias, the Illinois state treasurer backed by Obama and heavily involved in the Broadway Bank scandal. Illinois Democrats, you see, can’t help themselves; in a year in which voters are turned off by political insiders and corruption, nominate one of the biggest crooks in the state this side of Blagojovich to run for Senate.
More bad news on the horizon: voters in this region may not be finished punishing the Ruling Class which has devastated their lives. Next up: Obama in 2012.
Such brutal forecasts suggest an intense fight could be in the works for Obama and his party in 2012 to win back independents who are clearly still up for grabs, but seem set to teach the Democrats a lesson.
“The tea party movement and all these grassroots movements on both the right and the left are not going away,” Anuzis said. “There are much more independent voters, and they’re more likely to react and punish folks they think have [failed them].”
That’s why it’s wise to ignore any polls for potential 2012 matchups of any specific Republican vs. Obama. Granted, two years is an eternity in politics, but few if any see Obama being able to successfully triangulate Himself in the manner Bill Clinton did after the 1994 midterms. It’s just not in His makeup.
Obama is an Alinskyite through and through. Expect Him to call out and demonize a Republican-controlled Congress over the next two years, thinking He can blame any further economic problems on Republicans in Congress. You know, the additional hammerblow to the economy that comes January 1, 2011, when taxes automatically go up without a vote of Congress when the Bush-era tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 expire and Americans of all income levels pay retroactive tax increases of up to 50 percent back to January 1, 2010.
After all, Obama needs a villain as He continues to plead His case that He’s fighting for us. Oil companies, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, banks, Wall Street, Rush Limbaugh, average Americans attending tea parties — they are all conspiring to oppress you, and that’s you need the Community Organizer in Chief to fight for you.
It’s nothing more than community organizer tactics as part of the endless campaign.
“From Blue to Red, with possible shades of Yellow?”
Predictions that the political landscape with change significantly from Democrat to Republican are being made over all Media Sources (even MSNBC can’t deny it). However, the fact remains that there are a number of offices currently filled by Democrats that face NO Republican opposition. A small number of these offices do have opposition in another form. Libertarian Candidates have fought to gain ballot access in an effort to present at least a little opposition. While Libertarians might not see eye to eye with the RNC on social issues, they are standing strong on issues involving fiscal conservatism and fighting the expansion of Government. These are the issues of most importance these days and it is proven by the Tea Party Movement. Will unrepresented Republican Voters choose to support lesser known, funded and publicized Libertarian Candidates who fill about 60% of their beliefs? Or will they simply check other and write in “Mickey Mouse”?
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