Election

[Luna]

Will the Democrats regain control of the house and/or senate?

Discuss.

It depends what strategy they take. I recently read an article about this that made sense to me:

"they need to:
1. focus on eviornmental, energy options and weaning off dependance on foriegn oil.

2. control the dynamic - The anger on the left should be directed against the leaders of the party who are so timid and so afraid of attempting anything that is designed to put the Republicans on the defensive.

3. deny them targets - Rove and the Republicans are masters at this. They go after the enemy's strengths and focus on their own weaknesses. Their greatest weakness, their greatest target would seemingly be Iraq right now. But Rove is brilliant at turning this around. He makes Iraq the Democrat weakness, by deflecting attention from how the war has been conducted to what will happen if we leave. The Democrats should turn this around, by not providing the Republicans with so many juicy targets. Elucidating a clear policy on Iraq and terrorism would help. Taxes are always an Achilles heel for Democrats. Preempt this attack by talking about actual programs you would be in favor of eliminating, of how taxes could be lowered for the majority of Americans, how this would be accomplished.

4. Set ambushes: Rove and company start with something rather ugly or negative that is generally planted into the media by their operatives. The Democrats get angry and fight back. The Republicans return fire by accusing the Democrats of going negative. All of this is done to muddy the picture, deliberately create confusion on policies for which the Republicans are vulnerable. This will often be done around hot-button wedge issues. The Democrats must be prepared for this and should return some of the fire by doing some baiting and ambushing of their own.

5. Stop preaching to the converted: Howard Dean happens to be right here. The party has to expand beyond the blue states, has to find inroads to the South. Messages must be crafted for a wider audience, and money poured into races in areas in which the Republicans have felt themselves safe. Make the south competitive again has to be our mantra. Somehow the party has to rid itself of all of the snobs that have infiltrated it. Will the Democrats be the party of Hollywood, of New York, of Talk America, and progressive ghettos throughout the country, thereby ensuring permanent minority status? Or will it return to the vision of FDR, to a party that the average American could and wanted to identify with?"

if you want the link, I'll supply it, but I don't think anybody's even going to read that ^^^ whole post.