The great issue in this year’s election was the role of
government – federal and state.
The Republicans clearly took the election, though it’s more
likely the Democrats lost it than the GOP won it.
To compare their performance in office and their campaigns
through an analogy to the recently ended baseball season, the Democrats played
“small ball” and had lousy pitching, allowing the Republicans to blast the ball
out of the park.
The Democratic strategy has been to try to make all
gubernatorial and congressional elections into contests about locally important
issues – small ball. Meanwhile, the GOP has
made all of these races part of a national campaign about government itself,
and it has scored with this strategy in the last three congressional elections.
The bad pitching results from the lack of a sense of strong
leadership coming from the White House or the U.S. Senate, where the Democrats
had a comfortable majority.
President Obama could claim credit for a new health
insurance program that has already cut the ranks of the uninsured by about
one-quarter. He could claim some responsibility
for the economic recovery, taking place while Europe remains in recession and
China’s growth lags.
He failed to do either, giving the Republicans an open
opportunity to attack his signature health insurance program and his efforts to
stimulate the economy.
President Theodore Roosevelt called the presidency a “bully
pulpit” from which the nation’s leader could project strength and
self-confidence in promoting his policies.
“No drama Obama” has chosen to ignore the opportunity to project that
kind of leadership.
The failure of the Democratic president to make a strong
case for his policies nationally left the field wide open for the GOP to build
its own case. Faced with his own party
asking him to stay in Washington rather than campaigning in the field, Obama failed
to use the White House platform to promote his policies.
While some critics may question the Republican use of
uniform “talking points,” they seem to be effective. The clear Republican position against big
government, tying it to Obama and repeating it continuously, filled a void left
by the president.
For many voters, the lack of strong presidential leadership
must have been seen as a major contributor to gridlock. All the Democrats could do was block the GOP
agenda coming from the House of Representatives and leave it to Obama to assert
debatable executive authority.
Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, did
not help the cause. He, too, played
small ball by blocking debate on GOP amendments that might have embarrassed the
Democrats. That’s the major reason why
the GOP resorted to the record-breaking use of the filibuster to block bills.
Reid also refused to make any compromises with Republicans
when Obamacare was passed, giving them a clear shot to oppose it.
Aside from leadership on domestic issues, most Americans
want a president who can project their country’s power in the world. Americans believe the United States has a
mission to lead and set the example. But
Obama’s style has left many people with a sense that the United States is
losing its influence.
At the state level, the races for governor showed that GOP
candidates gained benefit from adopting their party’s position on the size of
government. The unified party message
worked.
The largely unchallenged ideological strength of their
position helped candidates for governor appear as self-confident instruments of
change. Democrats seemed unable to do
much more than promise business as usual and a greater role for government.
Look at Maine GOP Gov. Paul LePage. Despite being forecast only to be able to
retain his core support and unable to add to it in his second campaign, he won
a three-way race in which he almost gained an outright majority.
LePage came across as strong and outspoken, responding to
the electorate’s desire for leadership.
The Ebola controversy gave him an unexpected opportunity to use the
governorship to speak to the public’s concerns.
His use of television, paid and free, was generally good.
Do this year’s elections mean that change will sweep the
country now that the Republicans dominate government? Will the president accept parts of their
program?
The congressional GOP is held in low public esteem, so if it
uses its House and Senate majorities to find areas of common ground with Obama,
it could get credit for reducing gridlock. But it will be tempting for the Republicans to
block Obama and try make the case for a GOP president in 2016.
The presidential campaign begins now.