Cool I got on Cynthia any chance the Dems will end the wars or at least one war before the election that would juice our sides voter turnout especially with younger voters.

This is the four part plan that happens every election cycle:
1) Lie to voters
2) Take voters money based on lies
3) Get elected
4) Screw voters over

So, the 50-state strategy is now the way to go? How does rahm stand on this? obamarahma got rid of Dean as quickly as possible and there were several puff-pieces on how rahm won back the dim majority. Is this a “new” view that is based on the 50-state strategy has never really been tried before? I somehow have the feeling that this is the same as the male who has battered the woman now saying that he is so sorry and won’t do it again. There is no real record of obamarahma actually doing good things as promised and a real record of calling progressives f)(*& r(*&^, so I will probably pass this time around.

Yes, you are totally correct. Obama is especially good at this which is precisely why he is doing a great job.

Let’s just pass Nixon’s health care plan and call it victory.

I have not heard of any plan to frighten voters away from the polls and am not 100% sure what this last prong will mean in actual practice. I do know that there were some scary moments during last summer’s town hall meetings, and certainly no one would want to see anything like that going on at a polling place, but I am currently not aware of any groups threatening to do that.

AZ immigration law the police will be all over the voting booths asking for id holding people until their id checks out the computers will be overwhelmed by all the work and Hispanic voters will not be allowed to vote until their id checks out after the election.

The living symbol of that tradition is William Rehnquist, whose serious illness underlines the judicial stakes of this election. The chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court once made his mark as a young Republican lawyer in Arizona by challenging black and Hispanic voters.

http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/conason/2004/10/29/injustice/index.html

The GOP needs to win these elections the Census results are coming out voting districts get determined by these results.
Tell me what happens to the GOP chances if a majority of states like Texas draw voting districts to magnify rather than dilute Hispanic voter numbers?
Especially since just how many GOPers didn’t fill out the Census.

Thanks, Cynthia.

Rahm hated the 50 state strategy so either Rahm has lost some power or this is a fig leaf that will never get funded or implemented.
A sign it is being implemented would be if every moderate GOPer being targeted by the Tea Baggers gets a Dem challenger to take advantage of the GOP/Tea Bagger civil war.
McCain is being targeted by Tea Baggers as weak on immigration, Crist in Florida is being targeted I think for being Gay and Lindsey Graham is running to the Right now that the GOP outed him.
The Tea Baggers seems to want no cooperation with Obama before the election.

I’m glad to hear that the 50 state plan is in place – brilliant thinking from Dr. Dean. This November I will vote for my Congresswoman, Jackie Speier. Period.

I have not heard of any plan to frighten voters away from the polls and am not 100% sure what this last prong will mean in actual practice. I do know that there were some scary moments during last summer’s town hall meetings, and certainly no one would want to see anything like that going on at a polling place, but I am currently not aware of any groups threatening to do that.

I heard some states want reading tests before you can vote does anyone know if they passed or are going to pass this? Historically Whites get the easy test dark people get the hard test.
Also multiple forms of ID required to vote has been talked about before. Any word if the Justice Dept will get tough on GOP lies before the election to depress voter minority voter turnout?

There were 15 million first-time voters in 2008, or “surge” voters. The demographic study shows that they are predominantly young, minority, and/or new Americans. The goal is to increase their turnout by 8-12% over what you would normally expect in the off year.

How do the Dems plan to boost young voter turnout? We need a win End the Wars, get people Jobs or keep people in their homes.
We need real change and big change to motivate voters. Is there anything like that planned?

So, a little shout out to any of our readers who were 2008 first time voters: Do you still believe?

I believe I’ll vote but I’m not as motivated as I used to be Obama needs to give me a reason to vote.
And no if I won’t vote for any Blue Dogs unless the wars end or we get an FDR sized jobs bill. Greens or Socialists will get my vote.

Thanks for this. Don’t think the young will turn out. Hispanic voters may turn out, not necessarily because they buy the Dem’s immigration bill, but because Repubs will look like monsters during the debate. Tancredo may become the Dem’s biggest weapon.

I’m posting the following response, which I gave at the Seminal earlier.

Actually, I think it is the younger voters who have the least buyers’ remorse, mainly because they have no long-term perspective. Older voters, like me, have seen far more progressive administrations, and also felt the most betrayal from this administrations’ failure to take advantage of their mandate, given the eight years of the Bush Administration.

I think it is the younger voters who will remain faithful to the party. They will continue to donate their time. They probably have less money to donate, but let’s be honest. The Obama Administration made an extremely cynical calculation that any loss of individual donor dollars would be off-set by corporate donations. I’m sure that has happened, but their problem is that corporations (aside from their employees), do not vote apart from their donations (regardless of the holding of Citizens United). So, suddenly, the Democratic Party is left scrambling for actual votes!

And I don’t know if I’m indicative of most older life-long Democrats, but I am SO disillusioned that I switched to Independent a couple of weeks ago. I have closed by check book, big time! And boy, was the guy who called me from the Democratic Party pissed off when I informed him of the reasons I switched, and told him that I was looking for a Progressive candidate to vote for!

By the way, Cynthia, I enjoy your posts. I’m a former attorney, and also a soccer mom!

IIRC, Nixon’s plan would have been much better than what we got.

What was passed was a variant on Bob Dole’s plan

Consumer sentiment is important plus pawn shops how much consumer demand will be sucked up as poorer consumers in a recovery buy back things they put in hock to survive this recession. Family Jewels, heirlooms, wedding rings, blenders, guitars, computers, ipods etc will be bought back first then the consumer will spend.
I don’t think guys like Geithner or Summers realize this.

Exactly.

Anyway, A Dem 50 state strategery which may help the likes of Arlen Spector, Plantation Blanche, Blue Dogs and their ilk… is no plan I will ever embrace.

I mean what’s next, invite Jeff Sessions back to the D party?

Agreed:)

Good post, Cynthia. I’m sorry to say that I’ve become very angry and cynical. Except for some specific candidates on Act Blue I will not donate to any Democrats, nor will I vote for them.

I’m one of those older life-long Democrats and I cannot imagine voting for any Democrat for national office again in the near future. Disillusioned is an understatement for how the Obama administration has made me feel, and I was skeptical to begin with. No more money, no more time, no more being punked by the so-called progressive caucus, all of whom cave at the most crucial moments. They might as well disband. I do not yet have an answer as to what I will do instead of working to elect more/better Democrats, but I most certainly know what I will not do.

Citizen TCU:

I been workin’ my with county party for a couple a years and we’ve had some real knock down drag outs on issues especially during the healthcare debacle and I have seen the same lack of enthusiasm among the rank and file and out on the turf from folks that I canvassed in ’08 and were gung ho then. I’m afraid that we need to create insurgencies in every county and district north of the Mason Dixon Line to bringe back Howard Dean. Since ObamaRahma’s election we have seen the state party organization that was completely rebuilt and decentralized and won on the state level like we hadn’t seen in 40 years completely dismantled, the organizers tossed out and the old cigar chompers back makin deals.

Agree with most of what you say but

Actually, I think it is the younger voters who have the least buyers’ remorse, mainly because they have no long-term perspective.

Kids also need the most attention they need Wins to be encouraged to keep voting they have less patience than us.

….invite Jeff Sessions back to the D party?

I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Haven’t seen you around for awhile. Nice to have you back.

The Dems have 5 months to make something big happen (jobs, mortgage cramdowns – a day late and a dollar short) to impress voters and ignite the base. They’ll have to dig themselves out of the huge hole they dug for themselves. They suck only slightly less than Republicans.

Republicans still own the media. R’s have less ad money, but they have the excitement and the buzz going with teabaggers and the constant promotion of the teabaggers on a 24 hour basis.

Anti-war groups and the citizenry in general are larger and have a cohesive message but they were and continue to be blacked out by the Republican-owned media.

We are also ignored by the Democrats we helped to elect.

Might they be mad at us because there is no single payer? Because EFCA is DOA? Because DADT was not repealed the first week of the new administration? Because everybody didn’t get a real live unicorn for Christmas?

I credit you for not trying to conceal your disdain for young voters and liberals in general. And its nothing personal. But I hope you lose big time.

Nice ta see ya!

Agreed the race to fill Obama’s senate seat shows the danger of letting party bosses pick the connected instead of us to fill positions on the ballet.

Republican Congressman Mark Kirk claims 41% support for the second month in a row in Illinois’s U.S. Senate race, while his Democratic opponent, State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, has lost ground.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds Giannoulias earning 37% of the vote, down seven points from 44% a month ago. Eight percent (8%) prefer another candidate, and 13% are undecided.

http://www.rassmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election2010

The family bank of Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias loaned a pair of Chicago crime figures about $20 million during a 14-month period when Giannoulias was a senior loan officer, according to a Tribune examination that provides new details about the bank’s relationship with the convicted felons.

Broadway Bank had already lent millions to Michael Giorango when he and a new business partner, Demitri Stavropoulos, came to the bank in mid-2004. Although both men were preparing to serve federal prison terms, the bank embarked on a series of loans to them.

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2010/04/giannoulias-bank-made-20-million-in-loans-to-felons-when-he-was-senior-loan-officer.html

I have not seen such bad vetting of a candidate since Sarah got the VP slot.

It’s hilarious that you believe that “Progressive” means something that aligns with your beliefs. You were used, plain and simple. Obama could care less about your vote and paltry donations of time and money.

You were needed for a time. Thank you for your time and effort. Now, you are not needed. Progressivism doesn’t stand for you or your ideals. Just get out of the way and be thankful.

If the unicorn statement was supposed to be funny, it wasn’t. Whatever Cynthia meant, she made it clear that the DNC may be seriously misunderestimating just how much of a fuck we do not give about electing more Democrats.

You forgot to mention Corporations are people now and can give whatever amount they want. Just how do the Dems plan to counter this?
The Dems are stupid if they think they can move far enough Right to please the Corporations.

Citizen Twain:

Thanks but I don’t and won’t spend as much time (or money) here as I used to ‘cuz I don’t have the time or the youthful energy or the money anymore to beat my head against the wall too many times a day. I miss you folks but I don’t miss the faggot hassles…please, I hope you take your convictions to your next local party meeting and connect with others like yourself…there are a lot more like you just as frustrated and local politics is where it’s at.

This was not a policy discussion meeting.

This was a how we are going to deploy reosurces meeting.

Shit you are lucky I am stuck Eshoo… SHE is just a POS!!

And the GOP message is more tax cuts for the rich as we cut Social Security and keep going in debt with war spending? Yeah thats a winning message the Blue Dogs won’t frame the election like that nor will the media but trust me we will.
As far as contempt goes Dems are only contemptible when we act like the GOP.

There will be an organized right-wing machine to harrass black and latino voters – strategically placed roadside police vehicle inspections on voting day. There will be ballots that are designed to sabotage Democrats. There will be electronic voting machines. There will be Republican operatives with boxes of ballots in their car trunks.

JEB did it for his brother in Florida 2000. Whoever said that the AZ law is designed to intimidate latino voters is correct.

Is this a “new” view that is based on the 50-state strategy has never really been tried before?

It’s not “new” per se, It’s just an even bigger commitment to field over media and to doing all 50 states.

It’s More and Bigger, 50 State Strategy. So, for me, a fan to 50-SS, it was wlecome news.

As far as contempt goes Dems are only contemptible when we act like the GOP.

Dems are contemptible when they refuse to act like Dems (not that the word has any meaning anymore).

First you decide what you are fighting for and then you decide what you can spend to get it. Then you make plans to get it.

TCU

You make a good point. Not that it is necessarily the tea baggers, but AZ law enforcement that may be one of the biggest threats–

Don’t forget the Minute men and the militia guys any bets they will be outside voting booths too?

Might they be mad at us because there is no single payer? Because EFCA is DOA? Because DADT was not repealed the first week of the new administration? Because everybody didn’t get a real live unicorn for Christmas? I think before I ran out to target one group that does not have a long track record of voting my way, I would want to just double-check that they were still on my side

See this, this shit right here?

If you bring anything back to the zombies that are OFA and the DNC, take this to them.

We’re not mad because everything wasn’t made perfect in a week. We’re not mad because “we didn’t get unicorns”

I am sick and damn tired of hearing that argument. “He’s only been in for 4 months you gotta give him time…only been in for a year!”

It’s a year and a half, and I’m out of patience and trust.

the Democrats can expect not a single vote for me as there is not a single Democrat I trust. Let the Republicans win, I don’t care. There is no difference.

“2) The expenditure will be heavily weighted toward field rather than media buys.”

Which is another way of saying that the GOP isn’t their real competition, but rather the left.

Rahm hated the 50 state strategy so either Rahm has lost some power or this is a fig leaf that will never get funded or implemented.

It’s getting $50 million smackeroos and already has 250 organizers depolyed out ithe field.

That sounds like bothh funding an implementing to me. What this means for Rahm???? I couldn’t say,

Incumbent Dems and the Administration are running against this.

Workers in the lowest income decile faced a Great Depression type unemployment rate of nearly 31%. Workers in the top two deciles of the income distribution faced unemployment rates of only 4.0 and 3.2 percent respectively.

Why did H Dean’s 50 state strategy get dismantled in the first place?

Any plans on that front any chance we can get the Justice Dept to bring up a case and get this law declared unConstitutional?

Good news!

Agin, this was not a policy meeting.
The plan to get them to turn out invovlves door knocking, telephone calls and direct mail.

OFA is doing a “snowflake” system of organization with each level of leadership repsonsible for supervising 5-7/6-8 people, and they supervise 5-7/6-8 people, getting progressively more granular until you are down tot he level of indivdual block captians

Rahm hates Dean. Dean gone.

Dems are contemptible when they refuse to act like Dems (not that the word has any meaning anymore).

Thats why I call myself a Lefty:)

ES, Blanche would only benefit from the DNC turnout plan, IF she wins the primary.

Agin, this was not a policy meeting.
The plan to get them to turn out invovlves door knocking, telephone calls and direct mail.

We can have all the door to door salesmen in the world but we still need product voters want for them to sell.

Call it a jobs program…. keep the grass rootsy left busy in self defeating pseudo activism on behalf of corporate Dems. Just like baggers and the GOP.

This was not a policy discussion meeting.

This was a how we are going to deploy reosurces meeting.

Yeah, that is kind of our point.

They don’t give a flying fuck about any “policy” concerns we might have.

We, and our dollars, are “resources,” to be used when an election comes up. And they act as if OUR only concern, as is THEIRS obviously, is how Democrats are elected, and not why!

Seriously clueless!

The intimidation has begun Already!

AZ Truck driver forced to show birth certificate claims racial-profiling
The shape of things to come? Sure looks like it. And this incident happened before Gov. Jan Brewer signed the SB1070 into law on Friday. Video and story from AzFamily.com.

PHOENIX – A Valley man says he was pulled over Wednesday morning and questioned when he arrived at a weigh station for his commercial vehicle along Val Vista and the 202 freeway.

Abdon, who did not want to use his last name, says he provided several key pieces of information but what he provided apparently was not what was needed.

He tells 3TV, “I don’t think it’s correct, if I have to take my birth certificate with me all the time.”

3TV caught up with Abdon after he was released from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in central Phoenix. He and his wife, Jackie, are still upset about what happened to him.

Jackie tells 3TV, “It’s still something awful to be targeted. I can’t even imagine what he felt, people watching like he was some type of criminal.”

You misunderstand my point. I think the Dems have screwed up huge o health care. I think they are insane for screwing over the unions on card check. Where do they think they are going to get allthese volunteers, if the unions turn their back on the party and sit this one out?

Nonetheless, expectations were so ridiculously high by Nov. 2008, that even if the Admin HAD doen everything right, there would still be a sense of deflation.

hence the uniocorns allusion. Here at FDL, multiple writers cautioned against the danger of over inflating expectations and how it could lead to backlash when people realized that they had merely elected a president and not christened a messiah.

Since the new Admon and the Congressional Dems have NOT done everything right, I worry whether those new voters are still with us.

ObamaRahma got their “win” on health care reform, right? Should be smooth sailings at the midterm. No worries.

/s

Add me to the ranks of the wallet-closed and disillusioned. I’m 49 years old and essentially (with the exception of one stupid mistake as a college sophomore in the 1980 election) a life-long Democratic voter and activist. No more.

I am sick of voting strategies and fund raising appeals and busting my arse for a party which (on the elite level anyway) obviously no longer believes in the things that I grew up understanding were not just beliefs but were in fact the party’s foundation.

I’m a liberal. The Democratic Party does not stand for me and in fact, from the president on down, apparently can’t wait to disassociate itself from me and everything I believe in. But they do still want my vote…and access to my wallet.

I’ll vote Democrat again when the Democrats become the party of FDR again. Right now, they’re the party of Al Smith and except around the margins and the diversionary wedge issues, I can’t tell the Obamaized Al Smith Party from the Republicans of the 1990′s. No thanks. No more “lesser of two evils” crap for me. From now on, I vote for and donate to candidates who believe in what I believe, and who have the backbone needed to stand up and fight.

As far as young voters, all I can tell you is that my 20 year old daughter and 21 and 29 year old sons were all Obama voters in 2008 and all tell me that they are done with Obama and the Democrats. That seems to be a popular refrain among their circles of friends as well.

If I want to vote for someone who acts like a Republican, I’ll vote for an actual Republican and not someone who wears a Democratic label while pushing AEI/Heritage/Bob Dole 80′s and 90′s policies.

I didn’t leave the party, the party left me. I’m still here and will be here if the party ever comes back. But I’m through with chasing the party. Done. The whole system is kabuki and corrupt. I want no part.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389×8214448
Link to above article..

This is just shameful. I feel sorry for anyone who has brown skin in Arizona. Let’s hope this outrage doesn’t “travel” to other states.

TCU, the GOP announced a plan to bring back the Contract with America

And your point is? You have to work with the ‘progressive’ party you have, not the one you’d like to have. People like you are who got Nixon elected in 1968 and Bush in 2000. It is not all about you, sad to say.

Amen, amen.

hence the uniocorns allusion. Here at FDL, multiple writers cautioned against the danger of over inflating expectations and how it could lead to backlash when people realized that they had merely elected a president and not christened a messiah.

The backlash came when Obama cut back room deals with the very players who were causing the problems in health care in the first place. He torpedoed real reform before it had a chance in congress, then used the Blue Dogs and Republicans as cover for his treachery. It’s not about NOT getting unicorns…..it’s about that 6 inch carving knife in our backs (metaphorically speaking only, Mr./Ms. Moderator). Big dif.

Door Knockers are in for an earful. Voters will be more cordial to a Jehova’s witness this year than a Democrat door knocker.

The Democrats nudged* up health “care”, the wars, domestic surveillance, habeus corpus, jobs, banking, wall street, climate change, clean energy, DOMA, DADT, EFCA… The DEM plans to nudge Social Security while increasing Pentagon spending are extremely wrong-headed.

I’m a Democrat and I will give them an earful. I voted for change and got Republican-not-so-lite.

*courtesy of Cass Sunstein

True, but those are often doen in seperate meetings. This meeting was just about nuts and bolt deployement.

I don’t claim to have my figer on the pulse of EVERY decision made by the Dem party–not by a long shot.

I’m a protect the vote girl. That’s my interest, the civil rights end of it.

To Romberry and hotflashcarol:

It looks like we’re all on the same page.

As a friend of mine said a few months ago “I can’t believe it took me until 55 to figure out that the Democratic Party is a scam!”

Was it always? I don’t think so. But times have changed!

David Dayen has a fresh cross-post already in progress: Democrats Trolling for a Filibuster On Wall Street Reform

Why did H Dean’s 50 state strategy get dismantled in the first place?

It didn’t. I was afraid it was going to be dismantled b/c rahm hated it and I didn’t know what the new incoming chairman would do. I am relieved that Gov Kaine has decided to expand upon it.

Mad because he didn’t ACT to get DADT repealed in his first week? Really???

No, I’m mad because just 5 days after he promised to get DADT repealed this year in his State of the Union Address, he backed off and had his staff tell gay orgs that he would NOT push congress to act this year.

I’m mad because after a federal judge issued a valid legal ORDER that the admin provide health care benefits to the same-sex partner of the judge’s federal employee, Obama directed his OPM to not comply with the order.

I’m mad because Obama claimed that he didn’t have the legal authority to issue an executive order halting the discharges of service members under DADT while waiting for congress to repeal he law…. while at the same time he directed his Homeland Security Department to halt the enforcement of an immigration law that would deport non-citizens whose citizen spouse dies while they wait for congress to repeal the law.

Want some more examples?

And my point is that I don’t have a Progressive party in the Democratic Party.

Everyone has limited resources, including time, money and votes. And I’m getting too old to waste mine!

And for your information, I voted McCarthy in my first election, and voted Gore too. So obviously, people like me did not get Nixon and Bush elected. And that straw man argument isn’t going to work with me!

Oh, agree that the door to door people need a good product to sell. The product meeting would be a different meeting.

I was part of this particualr meeting because protect the vote stuff is usuall discussed at the same time as get out the vote stuff. And I work on protecting voter rights, so I got invited to this particualr meeting.

I’m sure there are other meetings, about recruting cnadidates, fundraising and policy platform. I just don’t go to those, because they are outside my stovepipe

Cynthia, I am so skeptical about the Dems really doing the 50 state plan. They talk a good game, but I have lost all trust in the party. Dean worked so hard on this and they will have to find someone who will do the job as well as he did – and there’s no one that I know of. I hope I’m wrong.

Which why, Jake, that I worry.

What the F! We can run against this easy I smell Newt he is going to run.

There are more field people deployed and at an earlier point in the election cycle.

I am happy about that.

Now, as to everybody’s observations about message and policy, I share your concerns.

I don’t get to set policy(though I wish I could), I’m just reporting on a resource deployment plan.

Obama and the Democrats are also nudging separation of Church/State in favor of Churchy. Nudging womens’ reproductive rights, nudging the destruction of public education (vouchers, faith-based education), funding fool-hardy abstinence-only sex education.

Democrats have disenfranchised many voters like me. I am going to retain my D voter card so I can vote in primaries against every incumbent.

I despise the incumbency protection racket. Blanche Lincoln, Joe Lieberman, Alren Spectre.

As a friend of mine said a few months ago “I can’t believe it took me until 55 to figure out that the Democratic Party is a scam!”

Was it always? I don’t think so. But times have changed!

I think we’ve been building this oligarchy for decades. But I also think that the DLC Dems since Clinton bear little resemblance to the Dems that drew me to the party back in the 70s. It’s been a lesser-of-two-evils game for a long time now; I can’t remember the last actual affirmative vote I cast in a national election.

I guess my take-away from this thread is that as long as Rahm gets to set policy, most of us don’t actually care about resource deployment.

….along with off shore oil drilling, allowing commercial whaling, domestic spending freeze….there really is an endless list of the issues where they poke liberals with a stick in the eye. One thing Obamarahma clearly enjoys doing. And I’m sure the November debacle will be laid at our feet as well.

The whole unicorn, not a messiah, give him more time, want a pony, etc. is a bunch of unadulterated horseshit. The base represented on this website would have been overjoyed with extremely watered down compromises on any of the things we cared about. We got NOTHING.

Yeah, expecting Obama and the rest of the politicos not to lie to you while knifing you in the back was a seriously high expectation. People have just got to accept that they’re voting against their own interests and giving up their hard earned money for something that will be used against them. Support a third party or look at a candidates on a case-by-case basis. OFA and the DNC have already shown they are not to be trusted and expecting different results this time around is just setting yourself up for more knives in your back with the bonus of a depleted bank account.

Seriously, is there a way to file a class-action lawsuit to allege fraud? Cuz if I can’t get my vote and time back, I sure as hell would like my money!

Exactly. I would suggest that the people expecting a unicorn are those who are going to go knock on doors and open their wallets for this next election cycle. Fool me once, etc.

We just have to think of it as very expensive lesson and not give them any more. It’s going to get really, really ugly out there and we are all going to be tempted to support Dems just to keep the haters away.

I agree we’ll be tempted, which is one reason I officially switched to Independent. I’m in a different frame of mine, and it also makes it easier to fend off the DNC fundraisers!

I just moved back to California and I have to register to vote and re-educate myself about the primary rules here — I think I can decline to state preference and still request a Democratic ballot. I do want to vote for local candidates in the Democratic primary, but after that I would consider myself independent. I just realized this morning I have another reason to get to the DMV post-haste: I need to get the odious Arizona plates off my car!

The good news is, DNC fundraising appears to be going well.

I don’t regard that as good news. It just means they’ll have more money to pour into races supporting Blanche Lincoln, Heath Schuler and other Blue Dogs.

I want them to have serious fund-raising failures, such that they have to actually appeal to people like us for $$$.

More than one DNC, DSCC, DCCC, OFA and MoveOn organizer who’s called this house begging for cash has gotten and earful — and a “no f’ing way.”

! And boy, was the guy who called me from the Democratic Party pissed off when I informed him of the reasons I switched, and told him that I was looking for a Progressive candidate to vote for!

Oh, I’d like to hear more about that!

I continue to want some investigative journalism about how many former Dems are giving the finger to the Dem crews attempting to shake them down now.

I know if things were different [i.e., if Obama were any good], I’d be donating & signing up to work [just like in many past elections].

This year: No Fucking Way. I’d like more coverage on how widespread this “phenomenon” is. As you said, they can replace our $$$ with corporate dollars, but they can’t replace our votes.

President Obama asked us to support Democrats in the next election reminding us that we supported him in the last one. I indeed did support him but since then:

He has failed to: stop torture, stop the government hiding behind the State Secrets act, stop the government from spying on us, close Gitmo, enact real health care reform by giving us the biggest Insurance industry bailout in history, push Card Check, end Dont Ask Dont Tell, withdraw from Iraq, back fair elections in Afganistan, bring the Bush criminals to justice, accept the fact that the Republicans dont want anything to do with him or the horse he rode in on, nominate any progressives to any high office or judicial post.

In other words Obama has failed. No I will not support him or his party in the next election. I may well vote for individual Democrats but it will be on their record and not due to any association with Obama or his failed attempt to bring us Change we can Believe in.

Question is, so 2010 is obviously going to be a failure for the Democrats. Perhaps some segment of the voters will still vote for the Democrats out of fear that the Republicans will be worse, where does that put us for 2012?

Obviously unless Obama decides on his own to be a one-term president, this means he’ll be the New Democrat candidate for 2012. When he loses, who will the Democrats rally around? Clinton? Can you see Clinton being any better on these issues considering Obama surrounded himself with Clintonites from Bill’s era?

I know so many people will rally around her because she’s a woman. Does any of the superficial stuff matter anymore? She’ll just be a rehash of Obama or Clinton before them.

*sigh* So what about 2020?

Totally agree – the Democratic Party has disowned it’s own historical base in favor of the “neo-liberalism” fraud which disguises their complete capitulation to authoritarian corporate rule. There’s a good reason no polling accompanied the release of this doomed “strategery”; the polling would show just how disillusioned the base is with the Party. I have given only to primary challengers this year and I’m pretty sure all my kids have done the same. No more donations to the DNC, DSCC, or anything associated with Obama – I don’t want my money being turned over to Blue Dogs and conservadems for their political benefit.

Imho, the Democratic Party needs to lose enough seats to drive home the message that we expect representation for actual people, not corporations, from our elected representatives. Unfortunately, this message probably won’t be learned, just like they didn’t learn a thing from Scott Horton’s win in MA. Their silly “plan” for winning in Nov is emblematic of this tone-deafness. Guess all that corporate $$$ as given them tunnel hearing.

Nader should run in 2012.

I don’t think it pays to speculate much beyond 2010. Unless the economy and unemployment improve dramatically between now and 2012, there will be plenty of challengers to Obama . . or maybe we will have devolved into armed rebellion by then. I’m absolutely not advocating that, I’m just saying we live in interesting times and I’m not going to assume that 2012 will be any sort of typical election year.

Where do you tink the next national candidate will come from? I’m not challenging you, I am curious.

One of the things I find interestig inside my one head, is I cannot seem to conjure up a Dem field in my mind. Edwards is deader than dead. Ithink Hillary is proabaly over.

It seems to me it would be somebody new, but who are the emerging superstars? When Obama was still a state senator and gave the speech at the Gore convention, Gwen Iffel pointed out, you could just tellthis guy was going places.

Of course he got there a lot quicker than I would have dreamed possible, but from the time of that speech forward, he was always on my development team list.

I can’t come up with a list now. Which is kinda weirding me out. Do youhave a list?

First web commercial of the cycle

http://www.barackobama.com/2010/

If I knew then what I know now, I would have voted for Hillary. And I would consider voting for her next time, since it seems she can’t be any worse than Obama!

And I can think of many others who seem like possibilities: Grayson, Sherrod Brown, Franken, even Kucinich if Dems would get less superficial!

Thanks, as always, for your posts, Cynthia.

I don’t hear/see any reasons in the commercial, how are we going to get people back to the polls?

I do think the immigration issue is one that resonates with younger voters.

Let’s see what can pass through both houses on that.

@Knute 63 (oops, i had javascript turned off)

Sometimes you have to move backwards to move forwards.

Rewarding the current crop of Dems with votes will be counterproductive since you’re rewarding bad behavior. If the Dem party wants my vote, they’ll have to earn it. I’m willing to live with the consequences. In fact, I don’t see much of a difference.

Our political system is broken and the Democratic Party is dead. I could care less about what they are planning.

I am amazed out how the Dems changed health care reform from a popular and populist stance like Medicare For All to “You must pay an insurance company whatever they ask.”

I am hoping for a record low turn out and a record number of defeated incumbents. This would indicate that voters hate both parties (like I do). Which would in turn be encouraging news for potential independent and third party candidates in future elections. I may or may not sit out the mid-terms. But for sure I will not vote for any Democrat or Republican. To me all corporatists are the same and they are all my enemy.

Sadly, this plan is not going work the way that you want; it will not be interpreted that way by the party or the media.

If there was anything we should have learned from Scott Brown’s win in Mass., it’s that. Many Dems stayed home in that Mass election to send just the message you want to send.
Message was not received – once again, the only message received was – Republican won, ergo, voters prefer Repubs.

That is always going to be the message received, no matter what else voters might intend.

So, as far as I’m concerned, staying home is not an option.

“This was a how we are going to deploy resources meeting.”

The failure of democrats to “manage the message” is a frequently revisited topic on these pages. The comment above reflects this weakness. It doesn’t matter how you “deploy resources” without a message that voters can believe in. The “hopey changey” thing has not worked out so well by my reckoning as all I have seen is more kowtowing to special interests and more importantly an abandonment or core planks of the democratic platform.

What do you want included in the Dem midterm platform?

It doesn’t really matter since I have no confidence that democrats will stand by anything they say.

In response to Cynthia Kouril :

“…there is not a single Democrat I trust.”

Which of your five points is going to get you over this hurdle?

Here’s my earlier comment to your post on the Seminal:

Might they be mad at us because there is no single payer? Because EFCA is DOA? Because DADT was not repealed the first week of the new administration? Because everybody didn’t get a real live unicorn for Christmas? I think before I ran out to target one group that does not have a long track record of voting my way, I would want to just double-check that they were still on my side. On the other hand, I am a lawyer and therefore cautious by nature. YMMV.

How dare you minimize and make fun of legitimate disgust and concern with incumbent Democrats based on Obama’s charade of lies last year in which they enthusiastically participated to bail out insurance companies in the name of health care reform and his application of the Shock Doctrine for the greater glory of corporate America at the expense of everyone who isn’t rich.

The Democratic Party is dead!

Don’t believe it! The DNC knows damn well what message Dems sent in Scott Brown’s election. And since the media is poised to run with this exact story, based on how many people voted for Obama versus how many people vote in the coming mid-terms, everyone in America is going to know why Dems lose seats, if they do, as we all expect!

And look at it this way. If we all stay home in November, at least the Democratic Administration will know what they need to do in the future, if they hope to turn things around!

Can you explain the Unicorn herd grazing on Blankfein’s lawn?