The 2014 Election to make a long story short an embarrassment to Democrats and Barack Obama, in addition to more Republicans in the House and Senate, Republicans also made significant gains in their races for governors. This election was also the most expensive election, no campaign had ever reached over 10 million in outside funding before 2010, but according to the Center for Respective Politics at least seven elections spent upwards of 13 million, this however could have been higher as some groups did not disclose the amount they spent on TV ads. This may be hard to explain, because many Americans believe congress has not been acting the way congress should, but has also re elected over 90% of it. Democrats have seen what the National Journal called a “Southern Collapse”, in 2015 there will only be 39 Democrats representing the deep south. And would be the biggest victory for the Republicans since 1928. But is this really unprecedented in the history of United States Midterms.
Obama's approval rating has reached below 50% in fact its only 44%, which is what it also was in 2010. However Obama still won the Senate in 2010, however he lost this time around quintessential states like Iowa. In this state only 39% of voters said they approved of Obama, and in Virginia where a Democrat won the Senate only 40% of voters said they approved of Obama (Bland). This could show a key shift that wasn't seen in 2010, that even in key states where Obama won he technically remains unpopular. Perhaps Democrats have seen Obama as somewhat of a pariah, like in 2006 Democrats are finding themselves in the same position as Republicans were with Bush. In fact the overall approval rating of Democrats for Obama is 67% whereas for bush in 2006 it was 77% amongst his fellow Republicans. However what is most key when supporting a candidate is the actual act of voting, only 25% of Democrats actually went out to vote in these last rounds of elections, compared to the 44% of Republicans who showed up for Bush in 2006. Like Bush many Democratic candidates blame bush for the position they have been put in, Obama on several occasions refused to go to several key fundraising events thus prompting less support among key Democrats (Thiessen). Despite what may seem like an unprecedented loss for Obama, this remains a little bit similar to the 2006 midterm elections, a president on second half of his last term losing key states with low approval ratings sounds an awful lot like Bush in 2006, yes there may be several key differences in ideology but what connects these two presidents is their historic downfall towards the end of their final term.
Work Cited
Bland, Scott. "http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/
the-7-numbers-you-need-to-make-sense-of-the-2014-midterms-20141119." The National Journal. Last
modified November 19, 2014. Accessed November 21, 2014. http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/
the-7-numbers-you-need-to-make-sense-of-the-2014-midterms-20141119.
Thiessen, Marc A. Thiessen A. "Democrats can’t escape Obama." The Washington Post. Last modified
November 3, 2014. Accessed November 21, 2014. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/
marc-thiessen-democrats-cant-escape-obama/2014/11/03/
ea7ee74a-6361-11e4-836c-83bc4f26eb67_story.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment