Despite President Obama’s bravado, huge cracks have appeared in the ranks after the midterm disaster that has befallen Democrats in every geographic location and at every level.
To prevent the “Obama being rejected in the polls” story from taking root, the president held a press conference the day after the election, then went on a multinational tour of Asia, and then made good on his belated threat to employ the “pen of executive order” to change immigration law.
In the run-up to the election, the White House read the same poll numbers as everyone else. Like a good chess player, they looked a few moves ahead and postponed immigration action so the GOP couldn’t say the election was a referendum on how to deal with illegal immigrants.
Truth be told, it works. The national Republican Party had no plan – or if so, failed to follow through on it – to continue its pre-election strategy: Focus solely on Obama.
Don’t talk about specific issues or programs that DS might reject. Do it for Obama. Americans voted against the government led by Barack Obama. They voted against him in the U.S. House and Senate, in the gubernatorial election, in the state legislature, and, as far as I know, in the Marietta (Ohio) City Council.
It would force Democrats across the country to defend what they cannot: President Barack Obama’s administration.
First and foremost, US Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) arrived to save the day for the Republicans.
Last week, Schumer announced that the election results could be linked to… Obamacare.
He didn’t say Republicans came out en masse because of their anger over Obamacare. Schumer argued that Democrats stayed home because Obama had used up every ounce of political capital he and Democrats controlling both houses of Congress had at their disposal by passing a bill that did nothing to assist the middle class.
As reported by Forbes, Schumer said:
“When Democrats focused on health care, the average middle-class person thought, ‘Democrats aren’t paying enough attention to me.’
Schumer further added that a huge percentage of the middle class already had health insurance and
“It was reported that only a third of the uninsured were even registered to vote… it made no political sense.”
Schumer is not a defender trying to get on MSNBC. He is known to have a fondness for everything from television cameras to radio microphones to reporter’s No. 2 pencils. He is a senior member of the Democratic leadership in the U.S. Senate.
Not only did Schumer throw the president under the campaign bus, but the newest member of Senate Democratic leadership, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), turned up the noise. Although she did not specifically address Obamacare, the Wall Street Journal wrote:
“Ms. Warren offered a similar prescription to the party last week, warning Democrats that they can’t get too cozy with big corporations at the expense of the middle class.”
Warren is a member of the Senate Liberal leadership, so she could be warming up some elderly pipes in the wings before taking the stage during the 114th Congress.
Schumer is in the Hillary Clinton camp for 2016. In a speech in Iowa just before the election (when Schumer, Clinton and others had exactly zero influence on the U.S. Senate race there) he said, according to Hill newspaper:
“Run, Hillary, run. If you run, you win and we all win.”
True, this took place at the state Democratic Party dinner, but this kind of admonishment does not knock Winston Churchill off the top spot on the “Great Speeches” shelf.
What’s compelling is that there’s more and more noise in the background, allowing Elizabeth Warren to jump into the president’s pursuit, so she and Schumer may not be able to sit next to each other at the weekly caucus lunch.
The great defender of Obamacare on behalf of the President was none other than House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who once said of Obamacare:
“We need to pass a bill so you can find out what’s in it?”
She said there were “14 million reasons” why Schumer was wrong, he adds CNN:
“People who enroll through health care exchanges, people who can have a say in their parents’ health care plans until age 26, and people who have coverage through the Medicaid expansion.”
Whatever. It will be fun to watch how quickly this rift in the Dems expands.
