Sunday, February 5, 2017

Balz: Dems' Prospects Dim in Medium Run

Dan Balz, perhaps the nation's preeminent political columnist, hangs his hat at The Washington Post. Today he writes that things look substantially gloomy for the Democratic Party nationwide.
Gallup’s most recent findings on party identification in the states provide one indicator, perhaps imperfect, for measuring what was lost during Obama’s presidency and a benchmark for gauging whether Trump’s presidency moves the pendulum in the opposite direction.

The most telling headline in the latest report, written by Jeffery M. Jones, says, “All movement since 2008 in GOP’s direction.”

As Democrats look to rebuild their strength in the House and Senate, the implications of all of these threads are problematic. Geography and party-line voting are working against them.
Democrat's prospects today look dimmer than those of the GOP in 2008, and those weren't any fun. Appropos of my headline, remember economist J.M. Keynes' snark: "In the long run we're all dead."