On a conference call this afternoon with liberal bloggers, Senior Advisor to the President David Axelrod said that while he sees Democratic voter enthusiasm "gathering," it's "not where it needs to be yet."
Responding to a question from this blog regarding surveys showing that Democrats aren't losing voters to Republicans as much as they are seeing their voters disinterested in going to the polls, Axelrod concurred, saying, "If you look at every poll Democrats are very competitive among all voters, but among the most certain voters there is an enthusiasm deficit."
To combat this trend, Axelrod said "it is really essential that Democrats realize what's at stake here and what the Republican Party is up to."
"I am absolutely confident that if there's a good turnout on November 2 that Democrats are going to do far better than people recognize," Axelrod predicted. If the party's base doesn't get engaged, Axelrod continued, voters will wake up on November 3 to a result they didn't want.
Today's release of the Republicans' campaign pledge -- "this retrograde Republican plan, this roadmap to the past," as Axelrod called it -- should serve as a warning bell to Democrats, Axelrod explained.
When asked in a follow up question just how the White House intended to avoid the situation in which Democrats are not excited to go to the polls on election day, Axelrod stated that the administration would be "barnstorming the country." The President, he said, is "going to be out two to three days a week -- and our surrogates are going to be out as well -- drawing out the choice for people."
Indeed, this appeared to be the central theme of Axelrod's message: "We're not going to allow this to be a referendum and not a choice."
As if voters only have 2 choices on Election Day. What an ass--you're not going to fix things in six weeks that you screwed up over 18 mo. I see signs things will get worse, not better, if we simply re-elect crappy Dems.
ReplyDeleteBruce Cronk already has my vote in OR-Sen; we'll see who emerges in OR-5 for me to vote for. Then there's always write-in.
Well, we do have 2 choices. The reality-based party that's trying to govern, and the party that believes we'd all be better off if we just let them drown government in a bathtub.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans screwed things up so badly from 1994 - 2008, no one could have fixed everything by now. To hand them back the reigns of the country would be the height of stupidity.
If they do win back a majority in either house of Congress, then things definitely will get worse.