The majority of South Dakotans don't want Mike Rounds to be their Senator. His failing campaign remains alive only because South Dakotans even more passionately don't want Barack Obama to be their President. Remind voters that Larry Pressler voted for Obama twice, and his hypothetical head-to-head advantage over Rick Weiland against Rounds would disappear.
It's probably a fool's errand to try reversing that deep-seated antipathy for our President in four weeks. But if voters want to honestly assess the impact of President Obama's policies and the wisdom of sending Mike Rounds to join a Republican majority that would obstruct the President, consider:
- Mitt Romney promised to get unemployment below 6% in four years. President Obama did that in less than two.
- Amidst rampant cries of "Socialism!" the Dow Jones has doubled and NASDAQ tripled under President Obama's regime.
- Since 2009, installed wind power has more than doubled, and solar power has sexdecupled (16-tupled)!
- In 2009, the Medicare Trust Fund was supposed to become insolvent in 2017. Now, with ObamaCare in full force, Medicare is good until 2030. Translation: President Obama has doubled the cushion.
Mayday PAC and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee won't spend their money telling South Dakotans how awesome Barack Obama is. They'll focus on selling Weiland's awesomeness and Rounds's awfulness. But if you find a voter who's open to the conversation, remind them that voting for Rounds to check President Obama's policies is counterproductive.
You can also add that the big GOP bogeyman, the deficit, has been tamed. When O took office it was better than 10% of GDP, now it's back to its long-term status as about 3% of GDP. And it wasn't done with GOP-style idiocy, i.e., government shutdowns and debt-cieling limits. It's all about tax revenues, the most important sign of a good economy, which are very strong. Notice that "deficit hysteria" has disappeared from the ever-contracting list of GOP mantras these days? I also note that the concerns over the relatively low labor-participation rate (number of people in the labor pool vs. total population) is probably a function of us baby-boomers getting old and retiring. We're still an outsized bulge in the population, which I believe throws that labor-participation number out of synch with its historic levels.
Not even a smidgen of corruption here.
If you like your plan you can keep it, period.
I always thought "sexdecupled" was what happened when my kids walked in to our bedroom late at night. Thank you for clearing that up, Cory.
Meanwhile, don't forget to remind voters and thank Mr. Pressler for the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which resulted in our horribly overpriced and crappy broadband and cell phone service.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/10/08/paul_krugman_obama_presidency_historically_successful_says_liberal_columnist.html?wpsrc=fol_tw