THE NATIONAL MOOD – AT 8:08 A.M. ET:  Do you recall a time when the national mood was darker?  There was certainly a bad time during Vietnam, in the late sixties, but the "mood" was as much a perception ginned up by the media as by reality.  This time, the foul national mood seems based on things that are very real, as The Wall Street Journal notes:

Americans are growing more pessimistic about the economy and the war in Afghanistan, and are losing faith that Democrats have better solutions than Republicans, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Underpinning the gloom: Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the economy has yet to hit bottom, a sharply higher percentage than the 53% who felt that way in January.

The sour national mood appears all-encompassing and is dragging down ratings for the GOP too, suggesting voters above all are disenchanted with the political establishment in Washington. Just 24% express positive feelings about the Republican Party, a new low in the 21-year history of the Journal's survey. Democrats are only slightly more popular, but also near an all-time low.

The results likely foreshadow a poor showing in November's mid-term for Democrats, whose leaders had hoped the public would grow more optimistic about the economy and, as a result, more supportive of the party agenda. Now, despite the weak Republican numbers, the survey shows frustrated voters on the left are less interested than impassioned voters on the right to in the election.

COMMENT:  This provides both opportunity and danger for the GOP.  The opportunity is in the November elections.  The danger lies from the first day after election day.  If Republicans take over one or both houses of Congress, they will be held responsible for congressional performance, and Obama in 2012 can do a repeat of Truman, 1948, who ran against the "do nothing Republican Congress." 

When we look at the Republican congressional leadership, fine fellows all, the word "imaginative" does not spring immediately to mind.  The congressional party must have an agenda ready to roll out if they can grab the power.  And they must constantly present that agenda, and its benefits, to every microphone and TV camera in sight.

Obama isn't Truman, and 2012 doesn't have to be 1948.

August 12, 2010