Who should we blame if the Democrats suffer losses in 2010

[spiritual_gunfighter]

Should we blame the liberals who want their ponies and have been unrealistic and not pragmatic, who have no concept how politics works?

Should we blame the conservative Dems who have betrayed Democratic principles and who are serving the almighty dollar over the will of their base?

Or should we blame the President?

How bout Republicans?

Who would you blame?

I am pretty sure I know who I will blame if things go south in 2010...I am definitely blaming Canada.

[FLAprogressive]

1. Congress and the President

[MannyGoldstein]

7. +1. Show Results, Or Suffer The Consequences.

It's really that simple.

[SPedigrees]

53. WE will be the ones who suffer if we bite off our noses to spite our faces

by voting for 3rd party candidates or not voting at all. We will be saddled with a repub Congress and repub president, and all the ensuing damage. (Think Supreme Crt nominations and kiss Roe v Wade, marriage equality, and other enlightened legislation goodbye.)

[MannyGoldstein]

74. That's Just What Rahm's Counting On

This is exactly how the DLC operates: "Once they get elected it's "who the &%^# else ya gonna vote for, suckers!" as they turn into functional Republicans.

Until we break this cycle, our government will stay to the far, far right. It totally sucks, but it is what it is.

[TexasObserver]

59. +1

The president and congress promised more Democratic programs than they are willing to deliver. They aren't going to suffer from being "too liberal," but from failing to implement the liberal programs they promised.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Historical patterns. nt

[stray cat]

3. The American people including the congress, senate and president

[Captain Hilts]

4. Democrats that don't show up to vote. nt

[JVS]

5. Current DNC leadership

[AlinPA]

58. Agree except we should use quotes around "leadership", nt

[QC]

6. Historically, here at DU it's the fault of The Gays when we lose elections.

Other sorts of far left impractical nonpragmatic poniless types also come in for some blame, of course.

It's never the fault of Democratic elected officials who act in every way like Republicans, though. They are as innocent as babes.

[Karmadillo]

8. Nader?

nt

[KG]

25. always the tasteful scapegoat. appropriate for any occasion.

[Karmadillo]

83. Last week, he ate my homework.

nt

[asdjrocky]

9. The Democratic Congress and the Democratic President.

Seriously, who else could you blame?

[LWolf]

10. Blame the conservative Dems and the Democrats who voted them in. nt

[Teaser]

11. who cares?

.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

12. I decided not to give my own personal opinion in the OP

I am interested in hearing what you guys think. I have seen a lot of mud flinging on this subject as of late.

[saltpoint]

13. The blame must be laid at the feet of

the Duke lacrosse team.

I remain convinced that they are behind all of this.

[Octafish]

14. Spinelessness (nt)

[Catshrink]

15. The Clenis

[tjwash]

16. LOL...nothing say's "American" like toss blame first, and work on solutions, oh, around 10th or 11th

[jtrockville]

17. Republicans.

Despite being the minority, Republicans still run the show. There are those who respect that, and maybe even like it - they'll vote R. Those who are disgusted that the D's allowed the R's to run the show, may vote either 3p or R, or just sit it out.

Democrats can change this by taking charge, and running the show themselves. I sure hope they do.

[L0oniX]

18. The DLC, center right Dems and DINO's.

[Individualist]

35. +1

[athenasatanjesus]

19. people that generalize all democrats

It's clear that most democrats are trying to get things done,so portraying them all as bad because enough of them are corrupt to sabotage the whole party agenda is not fair.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

23. Unfortunately the minorty dems in congress

are holding things up, the principled Dems in congress have relinquished the power to them.

[Stinky The Clown]

20. I blame people who ask who we should blame, cite examples of possible blamees, but .......

..... never see themselves in any of their blamee categories.

I want my pony. I want it now. I also know how politics work, so you're clearly not speaking about me.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

26. Those who demand ponies are in my first catagory n/t

reading iz fundamentle

[Stinky The Clown]

37. Yes, but you qualified it.

You said pony wanters who don't understand politics.

I pointed out that I am a pony wanter who does understand politics. Your qualification excluded me.

Yes, indeed: "reading iz fundamentle"

[SPedigrees]

54. Pony wanter & one who understands politics are mutually exclusive. nt

[Stinky The Clown]

67. No they're not. You're just plian wrong even as you try but fail to make your point.

A smart person knows what is possible. That doesn't stop the wanting.

I *want* my pony and I want it now. I know I'm not going to get it.

[NMMNG]

84. Here, is this good enough for you?

:P

[branders seine]

21. 1- nearly every Democrat who holds office currently.

2- All the enabling cheerleaders at places like DU.

3- Ignorant and apathetic voters.



We'll get all sorts of "majority parties always lose seats in the midterm" excuses here though.

[NYC_SKP]

22. There's too much broadbrushing in your question for me to answer seriously...

Maybe we should blame the broadbrushers?

;-)

[Hassin Bin Sober]

24. The Dutch?

[chandler2]

27. voters

who didn't listen carefully during the primaries.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

28. Yeah sorry I missed all of Blanche Lincoln's speeches n/t

edited cause i felt like it

[bvar22]

61. Give this a listen....Obama on the campaign trail...and get back to us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZG8Zq8V54k

[CalifornioRick]

29. Blame Congress

Can't lay this one on the President - he's trying but he has a Congress that gets distracted by business as usual. Pelosi and Reid need to do their part and get everybody to focus on fixing one thing at a time.

[cherokeeprogressive]

30. Democrats n/t

[pampango]

31. Everybody but me! It's always somebody elses fault.

:)

[spiritual_gunfighter]

32. I think we should blame Canada n/t

[ebbie15644]

33. The democrats!!

[WillyT]

34. I'm Gonna Blame DU...

Because we are so unbelievably powerful.

:hide::wow::hide:

:evilgrin:

[ixion]

36. They have no one to blame but themselves

despite all the finger pointing.

[OHdem10]

38. A certain number of losses are expected. Large Losses and

the Senate and House only have themselves to blame.

How many of them have hidden under their desks and let the
Republican Party define Democratic Party, Define the HCIR
in fact define everything the Democrats have done.

The Party in Power should have representatives on TV
making the case for their party, their legislation almost
24/7. This is what Leadership demands. I have been
posting this since the beginning of the term.

[mmonk]

39. Where the responsibilty is for failure. The party leadership.

[Ikonoklast]

40. The person in the mirror. n/t

[bobthedrummer]

41. Ralph Nader-blame him for everything as per usual...

[Iggo]

42. The Democrats.

Damn, that was easy.

[onenote]

43. the voters

who historically vote for the out party in greater numbers than the in party during off year elections.

[ima_sinnic]

44. the candidates themselves

If people don't vote for them, whose fault is that? Voters either were more attracted to a different candidate, or were so uninspired they didn't vote at all.

[Warpy]

45. I blame every corrupt son of a bitch in Congress

including the handful of evil men who would deprive 100% of us of the chance to have health care in the cause of pushing 50% of us back into slavery.

Unfortunately, the blame will fall on the Democrats and they will richly deserve it because Reid is too much of a wimp to strip these evil men of their power by temporarily abandoning the filibuster rule.

If Reid fails to do this, it will be a real bloodbath in 2010 and for the same reason we got 12 years of Republican damage in 1994. Democrats will have proven they lack the will and the discipline to do what is right.

Republicans will always do the wrong thing, of course, but the average voter figures at least they do something.

[shadowknows69]

46. I'll blame any elected official that didn't show any backbone.

And allowed "Change" to look like more of the same.

[earthside]

47. Senate Democrats

It is simple.

If the Democrats in the U.S. Senate had changed Rule 22 and set the cloture number at 55 or 51 (and ended "holds" and secret filibusters, etc), then none of this wrangling over health insurance reform would be going on. The 'filibuster' has been the one thing that has prevented the liberal majority in both houses of Congress from passing needed progressive legislation.

Furthermore, most of the Obama legislative agenda would already be law ... and all of his Senate-confirmation appointees would now be in office.

So, if the Democrats lose seats in the House and Senate in 2010 -- look to Harry Reid and the rest of the feckless Senate leadership for empowering Lieberman and Nelson with the ability to hold the whole country hostage to their conceit.

Finally, face it, the radical Republicans are essentially irrelevant to all the negative things that are hurting the image of the Democratic Party right now. It is a great irony that it is the Senate Democrats, themselves, (who have let 'independent' Lieberman caucus with them) that have created this swamp.

[SPedigrees]

52. Good point. Could they have passed a change to Rule 22 though?

Or would the likes of Lieberman have prevented its passage.

As to the republicans, perhaps what's left of their party is marginalized now, but their voice on RW radio and faux news still has an influence.

[undeterred]

48. Brett Favre

[saltpoint]

81. : )

[The Straight Story]

49. NADER!

:rofl:

[quiller4]

50. We'll lose some seats because there is a historical pattern of voting

for the party out of power in the first election following a Presidential. How many seats we lose will have a stronger relationship to the number of retirements since incumbents have an edge, the unemployment rate and people's feelings of security than it will to any single issue.

[SPedigrees]

51. unrealistic liberals, blue dog dems, lobbyists, republicans

I would not blame the president, who has had his hands full dealing with the above + the cesspool left by Bushco.

[NFL80]

55. If blame must be laid, perhaps one should gaze into the

Looking Glass.

[Vidar]

56. Obama & his DLC friends.

[comrade snarky]

57. How about the people in those districts?

You know, the ones who cast the votes.

Nah, that's crazy. Lets blame the president, that'll be more fun.

[rd_kent]

60. The ones that shoulder the blame are the ones elected to represent us, but did not.

[FarCenter]

62. Joe Lieberman

[Lorien]

72. Why? He's not all that powerful. nt

[Lord Helmet]

63. “It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you place the blame.”

-- Oscar Wilde

[JVS]

64. Is that a real Oscar Wilde quote, or is it one of those Uncyclopedia Oscar Wilde quotes?

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Making_up_Oscar_Wilde_quotes

In either case, it's a nice one.

[Lord Helmet]

68. LOL. It's one of those dubiously attributed quotes.

Like this one: "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco." -- Mark Twain

[amandabeech]

65. I'll blame Milton Friedman and those who still follow him. n/t

[proteus_lives]

66. And that bitch Anne Murray too,

;-)

[Proud Liberal Dem]

69. Anybody dumb enough to vote for Republicans?

They always seem to be fiendishly clever at being able to fool people over and over again into believing that the Democrats are ALWAYS responsible for problems/messes that THEY themselves caused over the course of several years and that people (this seems to work best on "independents") need to vote them back into power for THEM to "fix" these problems. I don't know how well that's going to work in 2010 since the Democrats haven't been back in office for too long and Bush's (P)residency is still pretty fresh. We need to keep reminding people that the Republicans were in control of Congress for 12 years and held both Congress AND the WH for 6 of those during which time they only made things worse and/or failed to do much of anything other than pass along money to cronies, de-regulate industries, and defund and wreck government piece-by-piece. The good news is that their poll numbers still aren't that great (certainly not what they were in 1994) and if a lot of otherwise "sure" Republican candidates get primaried from the right, that could help us hold onto some of the more vulnerable seats in the GE. The only thing that we really need to do is get out to vote (holding our noses if necessary) and do what we can to hold onto (or increase?) our majority in Congress- maybe we can even replace a few Conservadems as well if there are some good progressive primary candidates that can win in a GE as well.

[27inCali]

70. I blame them in this order

1) Repugs -'nuff said
2) unrealistic Liberals throwing in the towel after one year
3) the President who needs to grow a pair and start banging heads

[Lorien]

71. The DLC corporate sellouts

people voted for change and we're just getting more of the same. If they can't move anything meaningful through the house or senate with a rock solid majority they are either incompetent or corrupt. Bush advanced more of the GOP agenda with a Dem controlled congress! Hopefully our reps will find their spines before next Summer, otherwise it'll be a bloodbath.

[Profprileasn]

73. Republicans

Everything is their fault. LOL

[Thickasabrick]

75. Our banking masters nt

[roseBudd]

76. stupid Americans that have no idea that...

Barney Frank did not singlehandedly cause the financial crisis and that all our debt belongs to Obama.

[Pryderi]

77. It's the economy, stupid. n/t

[WeDidIt]

78. If it's bad, I'll need to see exit polling data to understand what the problem was. n/t

[Hawkeye-X]

79. I'll blame Obama for hiring the dickweed Rahm.

I'd like to see his ass fired and put a liberal-thinking CoS who can do a better job of conveying Obama's needs than his own DLC needs.


Hawkeye-X

[flvegan]

80. Chuggo. n/t

[bemildred]

82. Blame is a losers game. nt

[donheld]

85. I'm blaming you

[upi402]

86. The media. eom

[JCMach1]

87. Obama is the 'leader' of the party, so... buck stops

and all of that...