Hope, Change, and Electoral Defeat

The president's tongue-tied, voters are restless, and old people are cranky. It all adds up to big losses for the Democrats in tomorrow's midterm elections.

“Once in the White House the candidate whose velvet rhetoric and soaring vision lifted souls and changed perspectives somehow, somewhere misplaced his gift to explain and persuade,” writes the Toronto Star’s James Travers. Obama’s been unable to effectively remind voters that the recession that hit before he was elected wasn’t his fault, and that his stimulus plan saved millions of jobs. Travers says Obama’s experience is the opposite of Stephen Harper’s, because while “Obama's troubles came pre-packaged with Oval Office prestige and power” Harper inherited a stable economy and a huge budget surplus from Paul Martin’s government. Despite this, Harper’s “seminal achievement is labelling the same Liberal party that left him and the country in such sound fiscal shape as a tax-and-spend threat to future prosperity.” Everyone knows the real threat is the NDP.

The Globe and Mail’s Margaret Wente makes the comparison du jour, between the Tea Party Republicans and Toronto’s mayor-elect Rob Ford, both of whom she says have correctly gauged the anger of a population with reasons to be angry. “Both Barack Obama and outgoing Toronto mayor David Miller insist the voters simply don’t appreciate what they’ve accomplished. They say their only real mistake was to not focus enough on positive PR,” she writes, but the reality is Americans’ “lives have only gotten worse since Mr. Obama took office” and he hasn’t done enough to help. Similarly, under Miller Toronto became an unlivable hellhole where eco-fascist cyclists rule the streets.

The National Post’s David Frum makes a seldom-heard argument, in that while “Republicans are about to win a big victory in the U.S. midterm elections on a promise of lower taxes and less spending … ironically, the vote will likely lead instead to higher taxes and more spending.” This is because Republicans depend increasingly on voters over 65. Social spending for the elderly through Medicare or Social Security makes up one third of the entire federal budget, and having promised not to cut defence spending, the Republicans will have to raise taxes or lose the support of their base. Thanks a lot, grandma!