I believe it is time for Democrats to use the most cynical of moves, the Bush 2004 playbook. Liberals and Democrats must sell fear. The one thing Americans fear more than a bad economy is the fear of something. While not a wholesome strategy, in a frenzy where truthful messaging is overwhelmed by an easily accessible echo chamber of appealing sound bites and misinformation, this is necessary for the good of the country. When a CNN poll shows that most people acknowledge, most people believe, most people know that the current economic collapse and economic state is a direct result of Republican policies and are still willing generically to support that party more so than the Democrats that are attempting to past policies that are more middleclass centric, shows a certain degree of insanity. As such for the insane, a carnal message of fear more so than valid and intellectually honest information may be the only thing that works.
With polls and prognosticators predicting a massive Republican rout — and the likely election of uncompromising, out-of-the-mainstream conservatives — in the fall, the Obama administration has begun raising dire alarms in its pitch to voters. Remember the Bush administration, the argument goes. It could be worse. "I saw that [Alaska GOP Senate candidate] Joe Miller said that he would abolish Social Security if he had the chance and he is not alone," said chief adviser David Axelrod. "This is akin to what [Nevada GOP Senate candidate] Sharron Angle has said in Nevada and also a number of these other Republicans. So, this could go one step beyond the policies of the Bush administration to something more extreme than we have seen."
In an interview with the Huffington Post from his West Wing office late last week, Axelrod’s criticism of the president’s Republican critics were some of the most sweeping to date. The senior adviser called the GOP strategy for scuffling Obama, "insidious" if not "clever." Republican leadership, he ventured, has "put emphasis on throttling things down… hoping that the mess that they created… would be so difficult to clean up that they could then blame us for their problems."
"I think realistically what you have is a Republican Party that is now thoroughly focused on one thing and they have been frankly from the beginning: which is to try and regain power," he said. "And their strategy is to lock everything down and not let anything happen."
The remarks suggest a White House that is frustrated at the hand it’s been dealt, as well as increasingly concerned about the state of the electorate. Axelrod declined to place a marker on how November will play out. But he did note that history is not on the side of the president he serves.
By Monday, that history’s repetition was crystallizing. Stu Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report, released new predictions, putting the number of Republican gains in the House at 37 to 42 seats. Forty-five to 55 seats, he added, are "quite possible." A poll released by ABC News and the Washington Post the night before, meanwhile, revealed that for the first time in more the four years, the GOP is running even with Democrats in terms of the confidence it earns from registered voters. Faced with the possibility of a major, historic sweep on Election Day, however, the Democratic base isn’t showing signs of turning out in November.
"In a sense, we are a victim of our own success, of the expectations that the president aroused, and the fact that we have gotten so much done," Axelrod said, in attempting to explain the enthusiasm gap between Republican and Democratic voters. "Everyone who has a particular passion says, ‘Well if you got that done why couldn’t you get this done? If you got health care done why couldn’t you get energy reform done? If you got financial reform why couldn’t you get something else done?’ The successes we’ve had have been a double-edged sword. I hope that at the end of the day, however, people will realize that this has been a period of enormous progress. I’m not begrudging people’s desire to get more done. There is a lot of pent-up energy and aspirations and all these things are important. But objectively this has been an enormously productive time and everyone who helped elect the president should feel gratified at what’s been accomplished because it wouldn’t have happened but for their efforts."
David Axelrod: Republican Congress Could Be ‘More Extreme’ Than Bush (EXCLUSIVE)