# Dems lose the House in November. Who's to blame? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 25, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792 "2010-03-25T19:57:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/41 "2010-03-25T22:40:13Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > So UHC has passed and the Republicans will do their best to make sure no one forgets it over the next 7 months. Oh yeah, that’s a winning strategy! Continually reminding the rest of the country of Democratic accomplishments is a sure road to Republican victory! :rolleyes: The Republicans keep telling themselves that everyone hates HCR and is hungry to get payback on those overreaching Democrats. But the polls actually show that the country is cautiously optimistic about the new bill. I’m a Democrat and I’d love to see the Republicans spend the next six months raving about repealing health care. Obama apparently feels the same way; he gave a speech in Iowa today where he told the Republicans to “go for it” if them want to try to repeal it. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/42 "2010-03-25T22:52:23Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > Most voters are within acceptable bounds when it comes to intelligence. Some, like you, are very, very uninformed. Knock it off. [/Modding] ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/43 "2010-03-25T23:07:20Z")
**TWEEEEEET!** EVERYONE KNOCK IT OFF. There was an actual debate point in the OP: > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > So Election Day 2010 the returns look like a wholesale version of the Scott Brown election. Who do you blame? In the context of _looking like the Scott Brown election_, who will be most responsible is such occurs? Alternatively, why will the election not look that way? Knock off the cheap shots and partisan blather and definitely knock off the personal comments about other posters and silly comments about the “stupidity” of whatever position you do not happen to champion. \*\* [/Moderating]\*\* ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/44 "2010-03-25T23:40:30Z")
If the democrats lose, they’ll obviously blame some combination of the economy, the inevitable Republican nothing-but-smear campaigning, the expected mid-term bounceback, and/or some future event that we can’t possibly anticipate, such as terrorists blowing up california or the democrats all spontanously combusting. Positing that they’ll blame high-level democrats is absurd. Seriously, ludicrous. For about sixty different reasons. How could you even speculate that they would? They wouldn’t blame their leaders _even if they knew it was their leaders’ fault._ Duh! Positing that they’ll blame Bush is reasonably sound in that he WAS in large part responsible for the current deficit and negative state of the economy. However, they’re not going to blame him as a _direct_ cause of them losing the election, as that would be pointless and absurd. Not as absurd as blaming Obama, of course, but quite absurd nonetheless. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/45 "2010-03-25T23:44:48Z")
“Skeletor?” Around these parts, that’s [Otis Nixon](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VwxquU6EyPg/SYtpBg1XFjI/AAAAAAAAABY/plx01uNhAn4/s320/otisnixon.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/46 "2010-03-26T07:22:50Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Yes, actually you do… perhaps some actual evidence for your mind-bogglingly foolish contentions for a start. > > Maybe you could tell us again how Obama is a facist socialist mind-controlling lizard. Well, let’s consider AG Eric Holder..he is backing off his ridiculous plan to try the 9/11 terrorists in NYC-why? Because NYC Mayor Bloomburg says security will cost $270 million! Or how about Secretary Geithner-calling his Wall Street friends (so they can profit from inside information)? Or the insane “stimulus” boondoggle-the BOSTON GLOBE reports that a Massachusetts stimulus project (a new IRS building) was a real stimulus-for a Canadian steel firm! And as for foreign policy, Obama apologized to Venezuelan dictator and thug (Hugo Chavez)-his reward was to be vilified. Yep, great leadership we’ve got..“Hope and Change”?😃 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/47 "2010-03-26T07:29:52Z")
Needs Pelosi and botox jokes, maybe some Jimmy Carter. I mean, really, this isn’t even _Mallard Fillmore_ material. Watch Dennis Miller, steal some. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/48 "2010-03-26T08:29:31Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > A) the Economy, which although it is improving, and due to the major bailouts has avoided going completely belly-up, is still in the midst of a major recession. A truly partisan answer would then put this back at the feet of W, but I think there is lots of blame to go around. In this case the passage of the health care bill will be largely irrelevant [, or] > > B) A combination of Republican fear mongering, and disinformation combined with an electorate that prefers to think with its gut and stay woefully misinformed. As people realize that the health care bill has passed and the rivers have failed to turn to blood, I think that this will be less likely. I think these are the correct answers. The Great Depression lasted almost a decade and the potential scale of the present crisis is not generally grasped. Interesting that voters stuck with the Demos throughout the Great Depression. Today’s Demos are also the best party for economic recovery, but voters seem to have poorer understanding nowadays. It’s hard to blame Limbaugh, Beck, Palin, etc. (The frog couldn’t blame the scorpion who stung mid-river – it was his nature.) And it’s hard to blame the average voter who is, after all, … “average”! I blame the media. Many reporters, editors and even publishers are rationalists at heart, yet pollute their writings to increase their audience with more “drama,” or out of a peculiar understanding of “fairness.” ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/49 "2010-03-26T12:00:27Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > You know, **Bricker** , I don’t think that “your side” is really aligning with your philosophy and intellectual abilities anymore. “Your side” is not above this kind of nonsense. There has been a sea change, and you are now a centrist. When I get a new membership pack in the mail, then we’ll see. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/50 "2010-03-26T12:06:02Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Give some credit to the American electorate. They are finally realizing: > -most of Obama’s cabinet are not competent (AG Holder, Sec.of the Treasury Geithner, etc.) > -the foreign policy of making nice to dictators (like Castro, Chavez, Putin) isn’t working > -the enormous corruption engendered by the “stimulus” is coming back to haunt Obama > Finally, the USA is coming up against its limits as a power-the Chinese are balking at more loans to us. > Need I say more? > A change of government is in order.:smack: See, once again, I have to say… huh? There’s a huge gulf between “not acting as I wish them to act” and “not competent.” I’m not a huge fan of either Geithner or Holder, but there’s not question of incompetence – they are promulgating the polices of an administration I don’t agree with, is all. News flash: elections have consequences. We elect a President, and he then gets to appoint the people he wants. Those people then carry out his policies. How about we focus on the specific undesirable effects of those policies, and stop with the “incompetent” label? Unless there’s some specific instances of true inability to do the job from either of those men, some drastic fail-in-place I’m not aware of, there’s just no support for the claim of incompetence. They are competently doing stuff you don’t like – that doesn’t make them incompetent. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/51 "2010-03-26T13:23:17Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > And as for foreign policy, Obama apologized to Venezuelan dictator and thug (Hugo Chavez) Can I get a citation for this? All I can find is this statement to a group of latin american countries (\*\*Not \*\*Chavez specifically): > [@](#): > > While the United States has done much to promote peace and prosperity in the hemisphere, we have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. (Applause.) Which is pretty weak for an “apology”, and is pretty [historically accurate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Wars). ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/52 "2010-03-26T13:31:57Z")
I thought it was standard policy these days to blame ACORN for everything, _especially_ the stuff they haven’t done. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/53 "2010-03-26T13:38:18Z")
> [@YamatoTwinkie](#): > > Which is pretty weak for an “apology”, and is pretty [historically accurate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Wars). Ah, but you miss the point. The United States is completely infallible, has never done anything to apologize for, and any president who dares consider the possibility that America has ever been anything but the shining city on the hill must be by definition treasonous. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792/54 "2010-11-03T19:32:41Z")
Brraaaaiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnssssss!!! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dems-lose-the-house-in-november-whos-to-blame/533792.md?page=2)