Denial: Formerly the Hudson River

In addition to Maureen Dowd’s NY Times column Scott noted here, the “news” pages of the Times also carry a long feature story on how Democrats are panicking over this election cycle: “Obama Factor Adds to Fears of Democrats.”  I guess Dem House and Senate candidates aren’t buying the “You’ve got me” bravado Obama held out to them in 2010.

Hard to pick out who is deepest in denial here—Democrats, or the NY Times reporting staff.  Let’s start with Democrats

This unease is also prompting Democrats to speak more candidly about what many see as the root cause for their political difficulties: the bungled unveiling of the health law, in particular the insurance website, and the White House’s failure to market the initiative effectively.

Yeah, that’s it: the problem here was merely “rollout” and a failure of “marketing.”  The idea that the law totally stinks doesn’t seem to occur to anyone.

Then the Times says this:

Even though special elections are rarely reliable predictors for future elections, Alex Sink’s loss to David Jolly in Florida’s 13th District last week added to the Democrats’ negative story line. Frightening Democrats further, none of the Republican third-party money in the race came from the Koch brothers, the wealthy industrialists whose political groups have funded the bulk of the TV ads hammering Democrats this election cycle.

So there it is.  It always goes back to the Koch brothers.  Even when it doesn’t.

The ending is also fun:

Democrats say that the party needs more donors with the means of the California billionaire Thomas F. Steyer, who is helping candidates who support addressing climate change, to protect candidates who backed the health law.

“I’m not in the super PAC business, but we need somebody like a Steyer to get in the fight on the Affordable Care Act,” said Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky. Democrats, he said, are “getting beat to death.”

But Steyer is only interested in a Quixotic fight against a pipeline, which many Democrats want built.

I’m starting to sense a major Democratic wipeout coming in November.

 

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