So mad that they're complaining to Republicans running in their districts.
Dale Weiss, a 64-year-old Democrat, approached the Republican running for Congress in a special election and, without provocation, blasted the president for failing to tame runaway federal spending. “We need to cut Medicaid,” she declared, “but he won’t do that.” She shook her head in disgust. “He is a moron.”
After nodding approvingly for a time, the Republican candidate, Bob Turner, signaled for an assistant to cut off Ms. Weiss. Frustration with Mr. Obama is so widespread, he explained later, that he tries to limit such rants to about 30 seconds, or else they will consume most of his day. ...NYT
Weiss lives in Anthony Weiner's district. In Queens. In Democratic territory. Normally it's a shoo-in for a Democratic candidate. But not this time.
... The race has become something far more unsettling to Democrats: a referendum on the president and his party that is highlighting the surprisingly raw emotions of the electorate.
National Democrats, alarmed by a poll that showed the contest far closer than anticipated, are privately fretting that even a close outcome in a working-class swath of Brooklyn and Queens may foreshadow broader troubles for the party in 2012.
Still, we may be looking at a New York phenomenon here. This is an area known for its opinions and its outspokenness. But you have to wonder. I'd suspect that Democrats in a heavily Democratic area were furious that Weiner was so easily forced out for something ridiculous. And they may blame Obama and the rest of the Democratic leadership in Washington for losing a Congressional representative they found to be intelligent, forceful and progressive, even as their president appears to be a good deal less intelligent, forceful, and progressive than expected.
It's a pity Obama couldn't have taken the White House somewhere else. The moment he became part of Washington, he became part of the problem, not the solution. He went right along with the worst our politics have to offer.
Compromising with the devil is not viewed as a clever move out here in Manichean America -- not even in normal America.
