Judgment Day is coming

Many heralded the elections of November 2008 as historic. Obama's messianic campaign fancied him the anti-war candidate, champion of LGBT rights, the transformative leader who would usher in a new era of post-racial harmony, an era of the highest level of ethics and government transparency, etc., and the Democrats rode this wave of "hope" and "change" to overwhelming majorities in both houses of congress.

Sadly, both the President and his Democratic colleagues haven't made good on their promises. They bailed out the bankers and Wall Street but neglected Main Street; unemployment remains stuck at 9.6%. The President ramped up the war in Afghanistan and now his Justice Department is appealing the ruling backing gay marriage and is expected to appeal the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters are mired in ethics scandals, and news broke today of Barney Frank's trip via private jet to the US Virgin Islands courtesy of a hedge fund manager who just so happened to have received $200 million in 2009 as part of the $180 billion federal bailout of troubled insurance giant AIG.

In November 2010 we the people face another choice; that is what elections are after all, a choice. Instead of running on their record, Democrats, with the help of President Obama, are creating a new bogeyman: the US Chamber of Commerce. The President and his surrogates are alleging that powerful foreign interests, in an attempt to influence US elections, are funding attack ads against Democrats via donations to the Chamber of Commerce. Never mind that there is no actual proof that any of this is even happening.

The premise is that since the US Chamber of Commerce receives donations from foreign interests it must necessarily be using this money to fund attack ads. As the New York Times reported, "Organizations from both ends of the political spectrum, from liberal ones like the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the Sierra Club to conservative groups like the National Rifle Association, have international affiliations and get money from foreign entities while at the same time pushing political causes in the United States." If this is such a big deal, then why is the President singling out the US Chamber of Commerce? SEIU and AFSCME are expected to spend $100 Million on the 2010 election, with the AFL-CIO slated to spend an additional $40 Million. Needless to say this is clearly a political stunt intended to rally the Democratic base and little else.

By any reasonable metric it's hard to deny that the stimulus was a failure. People like Paul Krugman now argue that the problem is that we didn't spend enough, and President Obama, in spite of all of his talk about "shovel-ready jobs" has now back-peddled in saying that there probably is no such thing. As if pushing a $50 Billion "jobs bill" for infrastructure projects after passing the $787 Billion Recovery Act directed at that same goal didn't tip off the American public.

So what will happen in November 2010? Expect voter outrage at the current state of the economy to translate into anti-incumbent sentiment resulting in a lot of turnover in both houses of congress. Given the Democrats' overwhelming majorities, expect them to bear the brunt of this anger. Republicans are by no means safe, though. People haven't forgotten what happened the last time that they were in charge.