Thursday, February 18, 2010

The Republicans are getting more and...

...more confident that they can regain majorities in both the House and the Senate this year. I can't help feeling that they may be celebrating just a little too early. There are still about nine months until the mid-term elections. A lot can happen in that time.

Just this morning, The Wall Street Journal (the print version of Fox News), had a story, "Factories Gear Up to Hire":

Manufacturers are seeing more signs that the U.S. economic recovery is on a solid footing, opening the way for new hiring as well as call-backs for factory workers laid off during the depths of the recession.

What? Jobs coming back? That's not supposed to be happening yet! This would be a nightmare for the GOP. Their whole "Party of No" strategy has been based on the expectation that the economy would not recover and jobs would not return in time for the mid-terms.

What else would Republicans run on in November? Foreign policy and national security have been taken off the table. Culture Wars? Settled. The only thing the Republicans have been successful at harping on is the deficit (which they helped to create) and jobs (without a better idea of how to create them). But now, if this story is true (and The Journal has always been a reliable fade) it could take the gun right out of Republicans' hands. Make no mistake, unemployment is expected to remain high for years, but if the rate can be seen as moving down between now and November, it could remove the most potent issue for the GOP going into the mid-terms.

Don't be too surprised if the Democrats retain control of both the House and the Senate.

No comments: