An editorial “Independents and Republicans” begins “Like the 2008 campaign for president, the outcome of this year’s midterm congressional election could hinge on independent voters.” It concludes “Independents’ disillusionment with Democrats may not be enough to give Republicans control of either chamber of Congress after November, but it nonetheless will be impactful.”
WATCHDOG: The old hound takes no issue with the New Era’s contention concerning the reasons for the swing in the thinking of independents. Let’s check them out as presented:
1) The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — Iraq was a George W. Bush folly and the Afghanistan was bungled by Bush.
2) TARP — Bush sponsored and passed while he was president. At least 80% will be recovered.
3) Hurricane Katrina — Bush “bungled” as acknowledged by the New Era
4) National Recovery Act (“trillion-dollar stimulus”) — Needed to avoid the worst recession in half a century from becoming the first depression in half a century. It has. Instead of a couple of million workers standing idle and drawing unemployment checks, they were put to productive work.
5) Auto Industry bailouts — GM is recovered and on the way to repayment. We wish we could say the same for Fiat – Chrysler.
6) Stubbornly high unemployment rate — It is now stabilized. Without TARP and the Recovery Act, we can only conjecture how bad it would have become.
Independents who are wavering in their support of President Obama and the Democrats may be blaming the fire brigade for the fire. Of course most people have other things on their mind than history and current events, so they vote their frustrations rather than the facts. The New Era’s basic contention of a voter swing will likely prove right…it is only a matter of how far.
