Tweet
Go Governor Rendell, go! Tell us Democratic Party constituencies — especially the LGBT Democratic Party constituency — that we’re on fire! Tell us the problems that Democratic legislators running for election year are due to “bad communications”! We’ll believe you because you say it!
From the transcript of Sunday, October 31st’s Face The Nation (emphasis added):
BOB SCHIEFFER: Okay. Well, let’s talk some politics because that’s what I asked all of you to–to come here to talk about today.And Governor Rendell, Ed Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania, it looks like the wind is really blowing the Republicans’ way this time. What happened? What did the Democrats do wrong here?
GOVERNOR ED RENDELL (D-Pennsylvania): Well– well, first, Bob, let me just say I slightly disagree. I’ve sensed and I’ve been out campaigning the last couple of weeks, I’ve sensed that if this is a Republican tidal wave, I’ve sensed a democratic undertone going against it. Democrats are much more fired up in the last two weeks than people would think. African-American voters, I was in a subway station, they’re on fire because of the attacks by Mitch McConnell on the President. They know what’s at stake here. Gay voters, they know that they’re in the cross hairs. They’re on fire. Latino voters in Allentown, Pennsylvania, are riled up. So I– I think there’s going to be some surprises. I’m not saying we’re necessarily getting a hold on to the House but I think there is going to be some surprises on Election Day and particularly in Pennsylvania.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, back to my point though–
GOVERNOR ED RENDELL: What happened? Bad communications. I think this administration has done a great job. You go through the things we’ve accomplished, Lilly Ledbetter, four million more kids in SCHIP, credit card reform, financial reform, college loan reform, the stimulus which clearly according to the CBO has saved a lot of jobs. Health care which has done great things in this year, five or six great things like people with pre-existing illnesses, twenty-five years and younger can’t be disqualified for health care. We did just a lousy job communicating it. We let the Republicans to their credit outspend us a year-and-a-half ago when we’re paying the price.
Great job? Apparently, Democrats aren’t that worried about their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Democratic Party constituency. From Reuters‘ Disappointed gays unlikely to shun Democrats at polls; Gay voters, disappointed with President Barack Obama’s failure to do away with a ban on gays in the military, have pared back funding for Democrats in the midterm elections but are unlikely to abandon them at the polls on Tuesday:
As for the drop in donations, it is the economy, rather than voter disappointment, that is mostly to blame, said Andy Szekeres, a political consultant who specializes in gay rights ballot measures.
And the pesky gAyTM providing a bit less cash for the Democratic Party?
Donations to federal candidates from gay interest groups have taken a hit this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Gay groups have donated $849,410 to federal candidates during the 2010 election cycle, down from $1.8 million in 2008 and $2 million in 2006.
But hey, apparently everything’s fine with the LGBT community and the Democratic Party; apparently, it’s a “Move along, nothing to see here!” moment for LGBT community voters and the Democratic Party. All that talk about LGBT community dissatisfaction — such as how the San Diego Gay And Lesbian News describes it…
…Take the effort to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Obama asserted in his State of the Union speech that he wants the military’s discriminatory policy gone by year’s end. Then he lets the Pentagon and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates bully him into letting the military help him make the final decision, although he also says he wants Congress to repeal the unpopular law that was made during the Clinton era. The House voted to repeal DADT, but the Senate bowed to a filibuster threat from Sen. John McCain and continues to play politics with the issue during an election year.When a federal judge in California rules DADT unconstitutional, Obama’s Department of Justice vows to defend the law even though the president wants it abolished. He could pull a Harry Truman and simply sign an executive order and banish it forever. But Obama wants to follow the letter of the law — defending the nation’s laws no matter how unpopular — instead of following the George W. Bush policy of enforcing an imperial presidency and doing whatever the president wants.
When a federal judge in Massachusetts rules that parts of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional, Obama’s Department of Justice vows to defend the law even though the president says he is for equality and against discrimination.
Obama also has done nothing to eliminate employment discrimination against LGBT people, or even tackled asylum issues affecting LGBT people who often face hideous conditions in their homelands.
Then there is the matter of marriage equality. Obama has flip-flopped his message about same-sex marriage so many times that nobody is quite certain where he really stands on the issue. Before he ran for president, Obama apparently was for marriage equality. But then as he was running for the highest office in the land, Obama apparently was for civil unions but not same-sex weddings…
– are just so much talk, and nothing to really be worried about at all…right?
9 Comments
“Bad communications”are probably inevitable. They have so little good to communicate.
Autumn i like you..You represent the kind of strong no shit taking kind of woman i want my daughther to be. But this has to stop. In as much as we need and i mean and stress NEED to call Obamastration out when it messes up. We cannot afford to keep all this negativity out there. Its similar to shooting yourself in the foot. If the repugs take over i really cannot imagine all we will lose or probably never gain for God knows how long. Obama needs our help to make our goals come true…he cant do it alone. We sit here and complain and complain and complain…and its tiring and causing a lot of bitterness.
It’s a shame the San Diego News writerdoesn’t know his facts better:
Because he can’t. He can end the discharges, but not forever. It doesn’t do us good to misrepresent the situation.
The fundraising news is interesting. That’s a big drop. Unfortunately, at our headiest giving, $2M is really peanuts in Federal politics. They are not worried about us.
Ahem,http://www.pamshouseblend.com/…
the funding numbersare meaningless unless they’re put in context with the economy or how other groups of contributors are faring compared to their past donation rates. most non-profits are hurting because people don’t have so much disposable income now, so it isn’t surprising that donations to the party by small donors are also down. some of the decrease can certainly be attributed to the gaytm phenomenon, but so far nobody has shown me how much can be.
also, donations by ‘gay interest groups’ probably doesn’t fairly represent donations by gays in total. i know we need to use some sort of index like that because otherwise how do we know whether donations were made by lgbts or not, but i’ll wager that it is those individual donations not channeled via ‘gay interest groups’ that are really down due to the gaytm protest. but this is just my theory – don’t know how any of this can be proven one way or another.
“We did just a lousy job communicating it.”on this point i agree with him, the obama administration has been lousy at communicating. just look at the debate around the health care bill. the tea party was yelling ‘death panels’ and other such crap, which people actually believe, yet there seemed to be zero coordinated communications coming from congress & the white house to counter it and sell the public on the pending legislation. i do think this administration makes it tougher going than necessary by not talking to the public.
as for what he said about the lgbt voters, well we are trying to be as fired up as the economy will allow here in washington state to elect pro-equality legislators. HOWEVER in my view this fire was largely stoked locally, independent of the administration. patty murray has been campaigning hard and the progressive coalition has been working like crazy to get her and other lgbt allies elected but frankly the enthusiasm isn’t even a fraction as strong as it would have been if we had dadt repeal or some other major piece of legislation as a positive motivator.
+100
I agree with Rendell to a large extentCongressional Democrats (the House far more than the Senate) and President Obama do have a decent record to run on but they by and large have taken their electorate for granted.
Nor have I seen the Democrats running on their record of positive achievements, quite the contrary, they have been running away from them.
And there’s a big glaring thing that the Dems haven’t done…JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.
Communication is about LISTENING TO YOUR AUDIENCEmuch more than it is to tell them something. These Dems just have not listened, or refuse to listen, and take action on our behalf.