Gregory D.

Lee

Read Greg's bio and previous columns here

August 14, 2009

Voters Awakening From Self-Induced Coma; GOP Gaining Ground

For the sixth straight week, Rasmussen Reports poll of voters for a generic candidate for Congress had more people voting for the Republican than the Democrat. In the latest poll, Republicans led Democrats by a 5 percent margin, the highest in recent years. More interesting is that independents preferred a Republican over a Democrat by about a two to one margin, 43 to 22 percent.

The American electorate is finally waking up from its self-induced coma. It is now realizing that President Obama isn’t exactly who he portrayed himself to be, and the change he spoke of isn’t exactly what it expected.

Within the past six weeks, a correlation seems to exist between President Obama’s stupid “stupidly” remark about Sgt. James Crowley’s arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Gates and the beginning of the dip in the popularity of the Democratic Party. People watching the president’s press conference were stunned when he addressed a strictly local issue, and he revealed his hand. His remarks illustrated where he stands on race relations. It’s obvious he feels that blacks are always the victims of white police racial profiling, as evidenced by his jumping to conclusions, even while admitting he was not in possession of all the facts. His use of the bully pulpit to berate a white police sergeant was both uncalled for and not presidential, and the electorate noticed.

Also, about that same time, President Obama was pitching the Democratic version of so-called health care reform and the debate about it was beginning to heat up. More and more specifics on the health care reform bill surfaced, and it was apparent that no Democrat, including the president, had read the 1,000-plus-page bill. Again, people noticed. Couple that with a price tag for the bill exceeding $1 trillion, and voters realized that President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress have spent more money in six months than all other presidential administrations combined. That’s quite a feat considering this is a country over 233 years old.

President Obama and the Nancy Pelosi-led Congress have already begun to wear on the average American. Voters understand clearly that the national debt has increased significantly since inauguration day. The so-called $787 billion stimulus package turned out to be just the beginning of the unprecedented Democratic spending spree, and there appears to be no end in sight. Democrats have already advocated a second stimulus package because the first one hasn’t done anything to create or “save jobs.” Voters are realizing that the money was spent on liberal pet projects throughout the country, instead of putting it where it might do some good. This, by the way, was another bill that was passed in such a hurry that no member of Congress read it before voting for it.

Then the president touted his “Cap and Trade” legislation that will necessarily raise the price of energy commodities substantially for the sake of the country going “green.” By their own admission, the Democrats say that the legislation will only cost Americans the price of a postage stamp per day to make the country more environmentally friendly. If you do the math, you realize that this means a family of four will have to spend an additional $642.40 per year for the same energy services it receives now – money that could go instead to restaurants, rent, car payments, college tuition, etc.

Now that Congress is in its August recess, members are subjected to the vocal concerns of citizens who don’t like their health care being taken over by a government-run system designed to eventually put private providers out of business.

When the hard-core Obama supporter jumps off his 24-story condo complex and reaches the 17^th floor, he is asked by a resident standing on his balcony, “How’s it going?” The Obama supporter says, “So far, so good.”

We will have to wait and see if Obama supporters can rescue him in 2012 after mid-term voters throw the tax and spenders out of office in favor of a reformed Republican Party – a party that has learned its lesson that running as conservatives, instead of Democrats-Lite, will place them into power again so they can reverse the damage already done.

Gregory D. Lee can be reached at info@gregorydlee.com.        

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