Tuesday, August 08, 2006

those other primaries



Despite the media coverage, there are other primaries to watch today besides Joe v. Ned...but it sure has been the most fun. I was hoping McKinney would do something stupid to spark more interest, but this time they learned to shut up. But she will probabbly still lose to Hank Johnson, whom I have endorsed. UPDATE: I spoke too soon; McKinney is blaming the police, Diebold

Also the CO-07 congressional race seems to have died down, with DLCer Ed Perlmutter pulling away from the ex-governor's daughter Peggy Lamm.

Michigan has a house race that is the opposite of CT, a hard right winger supported by the Club for Growth challenging a moderate incumbent GOPer. This is a 54% Bush district...but maybe if the nutjob wins, the Democrat can cut into that.

The most interesting number out of the Washington Post poll for me was the extremely low approval number people gave their own congress(wom)man--55%. Usually, people hate congress, but love their congresscritter and then are some how surprised that congress doesn't change. This time, there is a pretty strong anti-incumbent mood in the country, the 55% is the lowest since (you guessed it) 1994. So maybe lots of congress critters will be working on K street this fall. The fact that a plurality, 49 to 34, think Democrats will do a better job on the war on terrorism (and a solid majority think Democrats will do a better job on Iraq) is also key. Seems like people are ready for a change.

To me this is 1992 all over again. The Dems had their chance to change (after all, lots of incumbents lost in 1992) but they didn't change enough, plus they were pissed at Clinton, and that is why 1994 happened. So if the GOP survives 2006 with majorities and doesn't change their ways dramatically, 2008 will be a big year for Democrats. Likewise, if Democrats get control of congress and go back to their late 80s early 90s ways, 2008 will be a year of reckoning for them as well.

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