Glenn Reynolds links to one Steven Sturm who muses, How could Democrats cut November's menacing losses? He counts the ways (follow the link for his elaboration on each):
1. Capturing Bin Laden?2. A horrible act of terrorism that served rallied the country the country around the Commander in Chief and, by extension, members of his political party?
3. Reports of favorable economic activity?
4. Something that showed Obama was "right" to bail out Wall Street and the automakers?
Interesting, although they're all — impropriety here and there aside — unattractive options.
1. The Taliban aren't the Borg, and the death of one man won't make Afghanistan any less challenging. Osama bin Laden matters far more to the political class than the electorate.
2. Barack Obama isn't George W. Bush. He has neither the guardian's instinct nor the moral vocabulary.
3. Americans had been spoiled by relatively strong employment over the last 30 years. Before 2008, maybe, just maybe, you heard that someone was jobless. Now it's a question of who doesn't know a single person among the unemployed. Brummagem economic reports matter nothing when a friend, a relative or a spouse can't find work.
4. Here we enter the sparkling gates of fairy tales, except that statism never has a happy ending. Besides, taxpayers would just as soon congratulate a corporation for not defaulting as they would munificently tip a waitress for getting the order right.
Democrats may squirm, but can't escape the simple truth that the center of attention begs a good performance.