Last Nail In the Coffin?

On paper, this headline should doom the Democrats’ hopes for a comeback between now and November: Consumer confidence drops to lowest since February.

Americans’ view of the economy turned grimmer in September amid escalating job worries, falling to the lowest point since February.
The downbeat report, released Tuesday, raises more fears about the tenuous U.S. economic recovery. … The Conference Board, based in New York, said its monthly Consumer Confidence Index now stands at 48.5, down from the revised 53.2 in August. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting 52.5.

Whether consumers are right or wrong I don’t know, but it’s hard to see what can happen in the next five weeks to turn around the voters’ mood.
Here is more good news: GOP groups overwhelm Dems with political ads.

In one way at least, the fight for control of Congress is grossly one-sided.
Just five weeks from midterm elections, groups allied with the Republican Party and financed in part by corporations and millionaires have amassed a crushing 6-1 advantage in television spending, and now are dominating the airwaves in closely contested districts and states across the country.
The extra firepower on the conservative side comes as some key Democratic-leaning organizations are experiencing unexpected trouble raising money or motivating supporters.

This is hard to believe; we are used to a world in which, in any competitive race, more money will be spent on behalf of the Democrat than the Republican. If the GOP really has erased this advantage, the implications are huge.
Still, there are some disquieting signs. President Obama has been doing better of late in the Rasmussen survey. His Approval Rating now stands at -12, while today, for the first time since April, more likely voters approve of Obama than disapprove, albeit by a slim 50-49 margin. Moreover, the Republicans’ lead in the generic Congressional ballot has suddenly dropped to six points.
Maybe these are minor statistical blips. More likely, Democrats and Democrat-leading independents are coming back to their party as they contemplate the likelihood of major Republican gains this year. Major those gains no doubt will be; but whether the election will be as triumphant for the GOP as many now expect remains to be seen.

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