But the Dems admit the Publicans have a big emotional advantage with voters who are fed up with high unemployment, soaring deficits and what many see as an arrogant Congress and administration that rammed a revolutionary health care plan down their throats.
The high unemployment and the soaring deficits are the fault of both parties, which was why control turned over from Pubs to Dems in the first place.
Hard to remember those days, all the way back to 2005, but folks like Bill Quick were advocating that conservatives and libertarians sit on their hands rather than for the Dick Armey types, the country club Pubs and the RINOs who were doing the K street dance in Congress. The Pubs sure did need a lesson and it isn't clear that they have yet learned it, but it does seem that the cure is worse than the disease.
The arrogant Congress and administration were the result of the turnover, and the voters (at least slightly better than 50 percent of them is my guess) haven't liked what they've seen. In a world that makes sense -- and the real world might actually do so briefly in November -- San Fran Nan and Oil Can Harry Reid's followers, if not them personally, will be turned out on their ear and somebody else given a chance to either get things back on track or follow them out the door in two years.
If voters keep burning with the throw-the-bums-out fever that animated so many primaries, Democrats would be likely to lose more than 40 House seats, costing them the majority and positioning Republicans to block virtually any Obama initiatives in the next two years. Losing the Senate majority, which would require a 10-seat Republican gain, is less likely.
As soon as the current crop of crooks is gone Inside the Beltway will be oozing sentiments of "bipartisanship," which will equate to compromising with the B.O. regime, ignoring the Constitution, and splitting the remains of the national boodle. The actual electoral proof will be in that pudding.
Democratic candidates want to convince these voters that no matter how much they hate the status quo, they would be worse off under a Republican Party that hasn't learned from its mistakes and is lurching ever harder to the right.
That's the joy of the Tea Party movement, isn't it? The Pubs are being purged in their primaries. They're doing the "choice not an echo" thing. From where I sit I can hear Barry Goldwater snickering in his grave. The nation keeps "lurching harder to the right" and then the pols get sucked into the system of corruption and "bipartisaning" toward the boodle, which is where the lefties lurk.
"This needs to be a choice, not a referendum" on the Democratic-led Congress and B.O. regime, said Erik Smith, a Democratic campaign adviser.
Since it really is a choice, not an echo, it will be in many respects a referendum on the B.O. regime. I don't think it's gonna be a vote of confidence.