Disastrous economy spells doom for Democrats

September has been a cavalcade of disastrous economic news for the
nation, the Obama administration and his proxies on the ballot box this
November.

Just to review, in September alone:

* The unemployment rate in August rose to 9.6 percent, marking 15
straight months that the unemployment rate has equaled or exceeded 9.5
percent, tying the longest streak of 9.5 percent or above unemployment
since the Great Depression.

* Obama’s made-for-the-elections “Recovery Summer” has become the punch line to a joke rather than a buoy to Democratic Party candidates.

* Consumer confidence is described as “quite grim” by Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center, in an AP article by Anne D’Innocenzio. Franco continued by predicting, “the pace of economic growth is not likely to pick up in the coming months.”

* Gold has continued to skyrocket in value to above $1,300 an ounce, demonstrating an underlying distrust of the dollar as a safe haven and serving as a blinking red warning sign about potential impending inflation.

* The Department of Commerce announced that new home sales in August were at the second lowest pace on record.

* The Census Bureau announced that the median household income in the United States dropped by 3 percent in 2009.

* Earlier in the month, the Census Bureau announced that the poverty rate is at its highest since 1994, a year the Democrats are desperately trying to forget, with an increase of 3.8 million more people in poverty since the Obama stimulus plan went into effect last year.

Is it any wonder, in light of this horrific economic news, that within the past couple of weeks, The New York Times reported and the White House denied that there was a plan afoot to embark on a major advertising effort attempting to further demonize the Tea Party movement and tie all Republican candidates for office to it? The last couple of days have seen various Democratic Party leaders actually attacking the electorate as being either too dumb or disinterested to actually be informed of all the wonderful things they are doing.

This strategy comes on the heels of the 18-month attempt to tie all economic woes in the country to former President George W. Bush, which was followed by an attack on Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the man who would likely become Speaker of the House should Republicans regain the majority, for, among other things, smoking cigarettes.

The desperation on the House side has become so palpable that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has gone virtually into hiding from the media, and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is the new Sunday talk show star. The irony of this tactic is that should the Democrats somehow maintain a majority, Hoyer will be credited with saving it, and Nancy could very well find herself on the sidelines anyway.

As proof of this, a number of incumbent House Democrats, including Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.), who is in the race of his life in South Carolina’s Rock Hill-based district, has refused to say whom he will support for Speaker should he be reelected and the Democratic majority retained. Of course, since Spratt failed to produce a budget for the United States this year, perhaps his reticence about Pelosi is understandable.

Now congressional Democrats are going home to face the voters without having voted on stopping the automatic tax increase slated to go into effect in January 2011 that is regarded to be a job killer, and they are wondering why people aren’t anxious to rehire them.

Now congressional Democrats are going home to explain how over the past year they were unable to pass a budget, while still spending about a trillion and a half dollars more than they took in.

Now congressional Democrats are going home to try to explain to the very voters who they think are too disengaged to have a legitimate opinion why they should be reelected in spite of the catastrophic results of their four years in a majority.

On second thought, perhaps the Democrats’ best hope is that they are right that the electorate is disconnected and ill-informed, because anyone paying attention to their woeful record is chomping at the bit to fire them from their jobs.

Note: All political pundit columns by Rick Manning are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the position of any of his current or former employers.