Bloomberg News's Al Hunt explains why our noble colleagues across the aisle are walking around pining for the days when Tom DeLay would deliver them magic ponies by swinging his awesome hammer:

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Republicans in the U.S. Congress are petrified about a November debacle, a fear stoked on May 3, when they lost their second straight special election in a district held by Republicans.

The party's fundamental situation is terrible: Republicans are saddled with an enormously unpopular president, a war, a troubled economy and a Democratic opposition that's being energized by important constituent groups.

"The generics are as bad as anytime since I have been here," said Representative Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican and one of the most politically astute members of Congress in either party.


In short, Democrats are flush with cash (well, Barak Obama is) , more energized (um, Obama), fielding better candidates, and we have the Worst President in History with which to saddle the opposition. The one apparent lifeline Republicans have, says Hunt, is a guy they've spent years mocking and vilifying: John McCain. But his coattails already seem a little tattered:

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"McCain comes across to some as a different kind of Republican," [DCCC chair Chris] Van Hollen said. "Yet he has fallen in line with the Bush agenda on the fundamental issues: the war and the economy."


A huge percentage of Americans agree with Barack Obama that we need a prudent plan to get the hell outta Mess-O-Potamia and let the Iraqis exercise their own sovereignty. And Bloomberg's latest poll shows that We The People are in no mood for Bush and McCain's whitewashing of the bad economic news that trickles down day after day:

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More than three-quarters of voters said they believed the economy was in a recession, and about a quarter said they thought the downturn was be [sic] mild. The same percentage said the recession was serious.' ... Seventy-seven percent of voters, and 76% of adults overall, said the nation was "seriously off on the wrong track. ..."


[A]mong the 78% of voters who said they believe the economy has slid into a recession, 52% would vote for Obama, compared with 32% for McCain.