Posted by
Roxanna M. on Thursday, February 10, 2011 11:24:00 AM
Come 2012, democrats will have to defend 23 seats in the senate. While most of these seats are in safe blue states, 7 are in red or swing states.
Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, a democrat turned Independent who voted with democrats, despite the appalling way they treated him, is retiring. His seat will likely stay on the left side of the aisle.
Kent Conrad of North Dakota is also retiring, and his seat is looked at as a Republican pick up, especially after the November elections. (Sen. Byron Dorgan (D) "retired" and was replaced by a Republican. Earl Pomeroy (D), first elected in 1993 and the state's lone member of the House, was defeated, probably because he thought it was a good campaign strategy to tout his vote in favor of Obamacare. All in all, democrats in North Dakota were thoroughly trounced in November.)
Finally, Jim Webb of Virginia has announced his retirement. In November, Republicans won 8 of 11 congressional races. In the 2009 elections, voters elected a Republican governor 59%-41%, a Republican Lt. Governor 57%-43%, a Republican Attorney General 58%-42%, and Republicans in 10 of 15 legislative seats, with a winning average of 56%-43%.
Meanwhile, Republicans have to defend only 10 seats, almost all of which are in red states.
Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona are retiring, and their seats will likely remain on the right side of the aisle.
Vulnerable Republicans include Scott Brown of Massachusetts and John Ensign of Nevada.
Republicans need to keep their 10 seats and pick up 4 to gain the majority. It's early yet, but 2 of those 4 are already in peril.
Add to this the fact that 3 other senate democrats - Claire McCaskill (Missouri), Jon Tester (Montana) and Joe Manchin (West Virginia) - have already begun their re-election campaigns by saying that they're open to suggestions about how to "fix" Obamacare like, say, getting rid of the individual mandate. Obama lost these states in 2008.
Columns and opinions are popping up all over the place about Obama's re-election chances. The economy is still bad. Unemployment is higher than when he took office. And, his signature achievement - health care "reform" - has just been declared unconstitutional. As of right now, he has absolutely nothing to run on, nothing to convince voters that they were better off in 2012 than they were in 2008.
Of course, 2012 is a long ways away and anything can happen. The Supreme Court could uphold Obamacare. But, that won't make the people like it, so it won't be a "win" for Obama.
And, nobody is expecting good unemployment numbers for several more years. Social Security began to run in the red last year. Neither the states nor We the People can afford the mandates of Obamacare.
Fundamentalists could grab control of Egypt and shut down the Suez Canal - through which the oil tankers travel. Some experts are already predicting that gas will be $5.00 a gallon by 2012. A shut down of the Suez Canal could drive prices even higher, thus raising the price of everything else.
Meanwhile, Wonder Boy in the White House steadfastly and stubbornly refuses to allow our own resources to be harvested, not only keeping up the price of oil, but also not creating thousands of desperately needed jobs.
Like I said, Obama currently has no accomplishments to run on and 2012 is a long ways away . . . things could be even worse for him then.