Bill Clinton on MTP - why 2010 will NOT be another 1994

[Hawaii Hiker]

1. Demographics of the country have changed..

2. Clinton said many seats were lost in 94 because he took on the gun lobby, something President Obama hasn't done....Clinton attributed that alone to the loss of 15 seats...

3. People remember the Bush years & that Rethugs had control of all branches MOST of those years..And look where that got us...

[msongs]

1. white racists fear of a black president NRA = a huge increase in gun related sales nt

[benEzra]

11. Umm-hmmm. Is that why gun sales also took off in 1994?

Clinton being black and all...

Gun sales surged because both sides of the issue (gun lobby and gun-ban lobby) were both saying Obama would pass a new ban on the most popular civilian rifles in America. Given that tens of millions of people were burned by the DLC/Third Way's original "assault weapon" fraud in 1994, a bit of hedging against the unlikely event that the DLC idiocy would be repeated was certainly not irrational.

Thankfully, Obama shut down the Third Way zealots on the issue, and the market has pretty much returned to normal, though ammo supplies are only now catching up (Iraq War demand and post-Katrina hedging played a role in that side of things).

[bluestateguy]

2. Obama has been very pro-gun

He signed Tom Coburn's amendment to allow loaded guns in natl parks, he'll sign the amendment allowing guns on checked baggage on Amtrak if it passes, and he put the kibosh on Eric Holder's desires to bring back the "assault weapons" ban.

[iceman66]

4. That is a very smart move politically.

It is nice to have a President for once who supports the ENTIRE Bill of Rights, instead of just the 2nd Amendment, or everything but the 2nd Amendment.

[iceman66]

3. The media is certainly doing everything they can to prove him wrong!

[Cha]

5. Thanks, Pres Clinton!~ Now if we could just get rid of

the corporatemediaWHORES trying to bring down the Democratic Prez for 2012 and the Democratic Congress in 2010.

The republicons do their own bringing down.

[Phx_Dem]

6. What funny about this is that at the same time Clinton was

making this statement, Chris Matthews and the gang were saying how Clinton is one of the most brilliant politicans and then proceeded to say the exact opposition of what the Clinton said. They pretty much agreed that Dems will have huge losses in 2010.

ROLF. We shall see, Tweety. We shall see.

My prediction: We'll lose some seats in the House, but I doubt we'll lose our majority. I also doubt we'll lose many, if any, seats in the Senate.

[Robbins]

7. 2010

I have been saying 2010 will not be a repeat of 1993,1994.Every special election In 2009 Democrats
won.In 1993 Hutchison won the special election for lloyd Benson's seat.Bill Clinton was at 35 percent
approval when Republicans won the governorships In Virgina and NJ,and Siant Rudy was elected Mayor of
NYC.In 1994 Bill Clinton was at 40 percent approval,you had a feeling of Democratic Leadership In
Congress corrupt after 40 years In the House.Polls will show Democrats today are viewed more favorabilty than Republicans.Back In 1993 Bob Dole was conserded a respectable leader not like the
jokes Mcconnell and Bohner today.

Republicans will likely win some seats In the House from Mccain Districts most likely from the south
but remember Republicans from Districts Obama won could face trouble to offset those.

In the senate at worse we will lose Reid,Bennedt,Dodd,and Lincoln(although only Dodd would be much of
a Loss) but win seats In Missouri,Ohio,NH and possabily NC.Although If Patterson Isn't opposed In
Primary Gillibrand could have trouble In New York.

There Is no way with Burris out of the race voters In Illinois will vote In a Republican for Obama's seat In his state who has voted against his agenda.Just Image what will happen when Obama reminds
voters In Illinois that Kirk voted against the Stimulas.Castle If he runs In Delaware would be a strong
candiate for Republicans but It Is still a big IF to his running for the senate.And If he does Obama
and Biden can point he voted against the stimulas.ANd If Beau Biden runs the increases the Biden
factor.

Reid and Bennent could he helped by the Republicans having to imsult Hispanics.Neveada and Colorado
have a bunch of Hispanic Voters.And the more the economy Improves that can help Dodd.

The gang there were those that continue to underestimate Obama.And I am sure If we go back they also
underestimated Clinton too.2008 shows many of the pundits don't know shit besides what they are told
to say.

[Phx_Dem]

9. Great analysis!

[amandabeech]

10. Your analysis is very interesting,

but it would be much easier to understand if you would edit your post to clean up the grammar and spelling.

Just a helpful hint from a grammar and spelling Nazi.:hi: :hi: :hi:

[Bravo Zulu]

8. Normal people don't vote for republiKKKans!

[ShadowLiberal]

12. 1 & 3 are true, but 2 isn't entirely

While demographic changes favor us keep in mind some of our groups will likely vote in smaller numbers in 2010 (young, blacks), but you're still generally correct there and on people remembering the bad years of GOP rule. Back in 1994 it had been over 4 decades since the GOP had control of the house, and not one of the republicans serving in the house in that congress had ever served when their party was in the majority.

On #2 however there's other new issues that could hurt us at the polls rather then guns. Off the top of my head here's what ones they're talking about.

1) Health Care (Like it or not the other side is angry because they believe all of the lies about it that the RW is spewing and will be more motivated to turn out and vote because of it)

2) The Bailouts (Even if this is a bipartisan thing it'll hurt us more because the out of power party is more likely to show up and vote, and we have more seats to defend)

3) The stimulus package (I'm still very skeptical that this one will matter much, but it did force Specter out of his party)

4) (to a lesser degree) The greenhouse gas environment legislation (The GOP is going to be slamming house democrats on this for 'raising the cost of living' with the legislation, etc)

In my honest opinion we're likely to lose more seats then we gain, especially in the house, though we'll probably have more luck in the senate with so many GOP retirements.

[Hawaii Hiker]

13. The thing that makes the bailouts bad is

that some of the bailout money was STILL going for executive bonuses/compensation, & these are the f-ing people who drove the company (as well as the entire country) into the ground....I have a real problem w/that..

If a company is making money & it didn't take any bailout money, & they want to pay bonuses, knock yourself out....But bailout money should not be going to executives who put us in this colossal mess in the first place...

[depakid]

14. Bill might want to figure out where the boots on the ground are going to come from

1994 happened because progressives got sick and tired of being backstabbed and stayed home- not because of any right wing backlash.

And that's borne out by voter registration records and turnout. If the Dems don't want a repeat of that, then they might want to think about actually representing the people who brought them back to power- instead of pandering to the right like Clinton did.