By now, many Americans understand that the idea of the "post-partisan" Washington envisioned by President Obama during the campaign went out the door almost as quickly as he moved into the White House. Meanwhile, voter frustration with the "business as usual" approach of D.C. is as high as it's ever been.
For months, Republicans have tapped this frustration with the status quo to attack Democrats for their support of "big government" programs and "growing deficits."
But as a number of them press forward against Obama's reaction to the would-be Christmas Day airplane bomber, they risk going too far.
It's been a very long time since a Democrat has had a bully pulpit from which to fight back, and Obama has shown that he's not afraid to use it.
The attempt to politicize the terror plot suggests that the GOP may fail to truly appreciate the mood out there. When people are feeling vulnerable, they want to be soothed, not agitated. Sure, Americans are frustrated by the seeming lack of consistency in airport security. Yet, at one of the busiest travel times of the year, most were simply trying to figure out when -- or if -- they should get on an airplane. Who did or didn't do their job simply wasn't relevant at that time.
Frustration with the federal government is real, but it's far from isolated. Think about all the big institutions that have failed us this last decade: Wall Street (bank bailouts, Bernie Madoff and Enron), the Catholic Church (the pedophile scandal), and Major League Baseball (the steroid scandal). Voters seem weary of the finger-pointing and demagoguery that go along with each scandal. Fixing problems seems to have taken a back seat to fixing blame.
There's a reason why many political strategists out there are likening this cycle to the 1992 election. In polling taken earlier this year by Gallup and the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, more voters defined themselves as independents than as Democrats or Republicans -- the most since 1992. Many of these independents are disaffected Republicans, and getting them back into the GOP camp is going to take more than simply convincing them that they don't like Obama. It's true that the midterm elections are a referendum on the party in power, not the opposition party. This is why some national Republican strategists continue to feel optimistic about their chances in 2010 -- while feeling less sanguine about their odds in 2012, when the Republicans have to offer a substantive alternative to Obama.
Traditionally, the GOP has been seen as better able to handle national security. Even before the Detroit incident, an Ipsos/McClatchy poll taken in early December showed Republicans as more trusted to "deal with the terrorism threat at home" than Democrats by a 7-point margin (42 percent to 35 percent). At the end of 2008, Democrats had a 9-point lead on the issue.
Still, it's been a very long time since a Democrat has had a bully pulpit from which to fight back, and Obama has shown that he's not afraid to use it. Moreover, given that many of the issues involved here -- including airport screening procedures, Guantanamo Bay transfers and Yemeni political troubles -- were not solved under the previous administration's watch, placing the blame solely at Obama's feet also seems like a stretch.
Sen. Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-Mo., in discussing the fact that ex-Gitmo prisoners in Yemen were at the heart of the plot, told "Fox News Sunday": "Everybody ought to admit that the Bush administration made a big mistake in transferring these detainees, these terrorists, back to other countries." And on Monday morning, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., one of the strongest White House critics, told "Today" that "in the last few days" the president "seems to have come around to the idea that there are people in Yemen and other places who are intent on hurting Americans, and I think that puts us all on the same page, and hopefully we can take the politics out of this.... The president seems to be in the right place now."
As serious as the attempted terrorist attack was, for most Americans Election '10 will be a referendum on the economy and not terrorism. What the attack did do, however, is take up a lot of the time and energy that the administration and congressional Democrats were hoping to spend on jobs and the economy. That, in the end, may be the only real "benefit" that Republicans will have gotten from keeping the issue in the political spotlight.
Want to stay ahead of the curve? Sign up for National Journal’s AM & PM Must Reads. News and analysis to ensure you don’t miss a thing.
Join the Discussion