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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Populist in 2010

On Friday, I put up a very commented on post arguing that, for the 2010 elections, the Dems and Obama folks should abandon the premise of running on their thin record of achievement (running "for" something,) and pivot their efforts into forcing Republicans to defend unpopular positions, Wall Street bonuses, healthcare status quo, etc, and then run "against" that.

Well, it appears that populist may be the way they are going. Taxes on Wall Street/bankers being announced Thursday, and yesterday, Obama used his Saturday address to lambaste the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision which allows unlimited corporate spending in political campaigns.

(I wonder how much of this change in stance is Plouffe coming back on board after Ma-Sen went into the crapper?)

Now, let me be clear, I'd rather see them accomplishing things and running on record, but politically and cynically, this "run against" strategy makes sense to me.

I think over the next few months we're going to hear alot more about how Republicans want to help Wall Street and the wealthy while Democrats are concerned about "people like me."

(PS. That whole giant "Republican resurgence" mantra was based on an assumption that the Obama folks wouldn't try anything different going into the 2010 year, that they would just sit still and let it all happen. These off year and special elections were just the preseason. 2010 is the game. I would expect them to show up, you know?)

2 Comments:

  • I'm hearing the reaction to the populist stance already. Hitting the banks = hitting the stockmarket = bad for the economy.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:06 PM  

  • Right. That's what FoxNews is pushing. We'll have to wait and see if it really bears out.

    Two days does not a bear market make.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 9:28 PM  

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