Democrats and the Panic Button

Democratic strategists are quietly hitting the panic button. As political analyst Charlie Cook noted yesterday, “Democrats haven’t had a week this bad since 2010 and it’s only Wednesday.” Not only did Democrats lose a special election in Florida, but a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll and surveys in four key Senate races (by a Democratic pollster) are painting an ugly picture for November.

Analysts can disagree about the national meaning of the Florida special election, but the fact that the Democratic dream candidate — former Florida state financial officer Alex Sink — outspent and lost to David Jolly, a former Washington lobbyist, in a district carried twice by Obama has to be bad news. As Adam C. Smith of the Tampa Bay Times noted, Sink “ran a hyper-disciplined campaign with a far more robust get-out-the-vote effort than Republicans.” But she still lost.

What Democrats are worried about is the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, which only ratifies other national surveys showing the grisly nature of the political playing field for Democrats. Asked whether they were more or less likely to support a candidate endorsed by President Obama, respondents turned thumbs down on Obama by 42 percent to 22 percent. Asked whether they would be more likely to back a candidate who was a strong supporter of Obama, the results were worse: 48 percent to 26 percent.

Democrats looking for a better economy to improve their November prospects should cash in their bonds. A full 57 percent of voters think the country is still in recession, and only 26 percent think the economy will improve in the next twelve months. Obamacare, a huge issue in the Florida special election Democrats just lost, is backed by 35 percent of those polled. Geoff Garin, who was Alex Sink’s Democratic pollster, laconically notes that “the Affordable Care Act was a motivating factor for Republicans to turn out and vote and less so for Democrats.” What that means is that the scramble for the exit gates on Obamacare by Democratic candidates will now be unseemly. They don’t have to read more polls to find out what is in store for them if they defend Obamacare.

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