New York Times Hangs Crepe Over Obama’s Door

In olden times, a piece of black material called crepe was place over door to indicate death in the family.

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Today’s New York Times hangs crepe over Obama’s door.  Its lead first page story,  “Obama Factor Adds to Fears Fears of Democrats: Health Act and Money and Midterm Worries,”  reads like an obituary for Obama and the Democrat Party  for the November midterms.   

On the same day,  Maureen Dowd, a Democrat stalwart, perhaps Democratic starlet better describes her,  sallies forth to say that the entry of Republican Scott Brown into the New Hampshire Senate race is an ominous sign of Democratic duress (“Dems in Distress”).

What to make of these distress signals – this crepe hanging?   

Well, The Times says it straightforwardly  enough. 

 

Four factors contributed. 

·         The dismal Obama approval ratings.  Any President with ratings below 50% loses in the midterms. Obama’s rating are now 40% and continuing to drop.

·         The loss to a weak Republican candidate in the district Florida special election.   This loss in district 13 special election is an  ominous sign.   The Democrat. Alex Sink,  was  well-financed, well-known, ran a superbly  well-organized campaign in a place that had voted twice for Obama in 2008 and 2012.  And she said the right thing about ObamaCare -  that the object was to fix it, not repeal it.   But she lost anyway, to David Jolly, a Washington lobbyist,  perceive by Democrats to be weak because of his lobbying baggage,.  The loss was  probably due to voter distaste for ObamaCare.

·         The impact of big Republican super-PAC money.  The villain here  was not  the Koch brothers, who poured $600 million national advertising bashing ObamaCare  and his performance on the economy and in foreign affairs. None of the Koch money was spent on the District 13 special election. In any event,  the Democrats spent more than the Republicans, making the loss sting even more.

·         The widespread perception that the Obama administration  is too  overreaching on the left to satisfy its political base and incompetence in  managing the economy and health care.   The combination of the botched rollout of healthcare.gov,  with its continuing problems and the lack of sign-ups of the young and uninsured,  and the millions of cancellations of health plans for the middleclass, are both  contribute to the Democrat malaise.  Where is  Obama’s Organizing for Action committee in all of this, and why isn’t the President selling ObamaCare more persuasively.

The Times articles ‘s opening paragraph says it all.

“Democrats are becoming increasingly alarmed about their midterm election fortunes and President Obama’s sinking approval ratings, and a loss in a special House election in Florida last week, and millions of dollars spent by Republican-aligned groups attacking the new health law.”
  
Tweet:   The New York Times is hanging crepe over the prospects of Democrats prevailing  in the November midterm elections in either the House or the Senate.