They'll all suffer perhaps MORE under Obama.  If a Republican were president, the DC Democrats would rise up and stand strong to protect Democratic values and the great accomplishments of earlier Dem presidents and Congresses. The Senate Majority leader would be proclaiming any attacks on Medicare and SocSec to "off the table."

Under Obama, DC Dems are basically neutered. They try to talk about protecting Medicare -- and then Obama talks about cutting Medicare, saying it and Medicaid and SocSec are all "on the table." And then thef DC Dems look around, stutter, try to be firm, but, having been cut off at the knees, end up on the floor in a pool of quivering jelly.

Dems can't criticize Obama too much without antagonizing a large Dem voting block, and they can't not criticize him without looking like they have no principles and will not work for the little people, the base of the Democratic Party.

Wall Street has leveraged its big money pre-primary and early primary donatioms to Obama into a buy out of the Democratic Party.  Now, under Obama, they're stripping out the assets of party princples and accomplishments, and that severely damages the party and its pols who actually believe in the principles of the party.  Soon, the party, like many hollowed out corporations, after disappointing its loyal customers with shoddy service and merchandise, may simply fail.

It was utterly stupid to not work out the debt ceiling while he was doing the Big Giveaway to the Repubs last December. At the time I feared he WANTED to use the debt ceiling to go after the safety nets, the great social programs of the 20th Century Democratic giants, FDR, JFK, LBJ.

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There are two separate questions.  The economic and the political.

We simply disagree on the economic stuff and discussions of that serve only to allow folks to shout their completely unprovable positions at each other.

The politics are more interesting. It was boldly asserted that unless the unemployment number started dropping very rapidly, we'd also see a drop in poll numbers for the dems. I argued that that was silly.  What would matter more was the direction people thought the country was taking and which party looked more reasonable and sane.

That's exactly what's happening. The unemployment numbers are coming down slowly. But we're moving in the right direction. Combine that with the contrast provided by the extremists on the right who have taken over, and you end up with the win last night in New York, approval of all the GOP down, Obama's numbers up and the GOP nomination in disarray.

Dem pragmatism v. GOP extremism gave us the victory in NY last night.  

No one expects miracles. They just expect good leadership willing to work through issues reasonable and logically.  

But again, very strong and definitive predictions were made about what would happen to Obama and the Dems (and continue to be made). If the dems make a big come back and Obama is re-elected, it'll be a clear indication that many have the politics wrong.

But he sees economics entirely through a conservative lens. He believes that the safety net is good, but sadly we can't afford it, so we'll have to cut back on it in order to balance that budget. He thinks this is being responsible.

In addition he believes that giving more money to elites via bailouts and tax cuts will stir their entrepreneurial zeal and save the economy, another nonsensical GOP belief which completely ignores the critical role that fiscal policy plays in the economy. He's completely bought into the nonsense that the government is just like a household and must balance its budgets or go broke.

I am trying to decipher his behavior.  He says things that any normal ration person would be lead to believe are liberals, then his actions are clearly in opposition.  He doesn't do anything as expected, and he seems fine with ticking off the base and trying to coddle the people who hate him.

Yes, Ryan's plan to kill Medicare is reviled nationally. Yes, a dem won a traditionally gop district. Correlation is not causation.