Breitbart:
Confident that the mainstream media will help place the blame for the looming government shutdown on the Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) refusal to negotiate with GOP leaders to avert that possibility may well be seen, in retrospect, as the turning point that lost the Senate for the Democrats in the 2014 mid-term elections.
Reid continues to publicly insist that he won’t negotiate with House Speaker Boehner (R-OH) or Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY) on any topic, and especially not on the budget or Obamacare. Democratic talking points have consisted of name calling and little else.
Meanwhile, House Republicans have already compromised and are regularly indicating on an almost hourly basis their willingness to meet in person to compromise further. Such offers have not even been entertained by Senator Reid.
House Republicans moved off of their original position of defunding Obamacare, the bill rejected by the Senate on Saturday, to a compromise bill that merely delayed Obamacare implementation by a year. On a party line vote, Reid’s Democratic controlled Senate rejected that compromise House proposal on Monday. Now, an increasingly belligerent Reid has announced he will reject any further compromises offered by the House, thereby continuing the partial government shutdown that began when the clock struck midnight on October 1, 2013.
The public does not appear to be blaming only the Republicans for the current impasse, as was the case during the government shutdowns of the 1990s. Even some in the mainstream media are finding it difficult to continue pushing the “mean Republicans” narrative in light of Senator Reid’s intransigence.
A recent Pew Research Poll for instance, indicates that the public blames both parties equally for any shutdown.
According to the poll of 1,003 adults conducted between September 19 and September 22, 39 percent blame Republicans and 36 percent blame the Obama administration. Since the poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3.7 percent, this amounts to a virtual tie.
Significantly, the poll’s sample of adults only (not screened for either registered or likely voters) is skewed heavily Democratic. 33 percent of the respondents were Democrats, while only 25 percent were Republicans. In polling terms, this sample is referred to as “Democrat plus eight percent.”
These results are in stark contrast to a similar poll conducted by Pew Research during the1996 government shutdown, when 46 percent blamed Republicans and 27 percent blamed the Clinton administration.
A national poll of adults taken more than a year in advance of the 2014 mid-term elections is not a very good predictor of Senate election results in specific states. However, there are some trends in the Pew Research Poll that suggest Harry Reid’s attempts to pin the blame on Republicans has a strong possibility of backfiring. It could, in fact, lose the Senate for the Democrats.
The numbers in the Senate at the outset are not promising for the Democrats.
Here is a good by Thomas Sowell explanation of why the house is holding their ground and who actually is responsible for the government shut-down.
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/10/04/who-shut-down-the-government-n1716292/page/full
@Randy:
Who Shut Down the Government? Thomas Sowell | Oct 04, 2013
Not only is the House properly using an accepted (and past used,) procedure that James Madison proscribed (in the Federalist Papers,) as valid and proper, they are doing it because of a President who unquestionably, unilaterally and illegally violated the Constitutional Separation of Powers Clause. Which Madison said is exactly why the Legislative branch needed this check and balance ability, to financially curb legislation that a possible imperialist President might abuse or alter. It was Obama’s un-Constitutional over reaches that has forced this battle.
A recent example of legislation passed by govt, but not funded by it is the Border Fence, which still hasn’t been constructed, because the funds were never appropriated by the Congress that ordered the construction. In that case, the difference were the number of Democrats that voted for the construction (to satisfy constituents) but against the appropriation (to satisfy their party).
Yes, and if we had an honest, objective press insteead of the leftist cheerleading cabal, all of this would be the running commentary on all press fronts. Reid’s cold statement regarding his callousness towards pediatric cancer patients and NIH funding of trial enrollment would be out there over and over to show just how much democrats do not care about their fellow citizens, but only the political drive to amass more power for themselves – the welfare of citizens be damned.
If we had an honest press, we would see the nightly news anchors contrasting the repeated and escalating attempts to put up barriers to open air public parks (which costs more money than to leave them in their natural open state) with Camp David running in full functional mode.
Leftists are natural liars and despicable power hungry thugs.
I begin to think the press should be a target. Perhaps the people should go after their licenses in the FCC renewal process.