Midterm Election Postmortem, Part 2. Jeffrey Feldman of NYU talks about the failure of Democrats to make a compelling case in the midterm campaigns; Tim Carpenter of Progressive Democrats of America assesses the damage, and strategizes for the next 2 years. Feldman is the author of Outright Barbarous: How the Violent Language of the Right Poisons American Democracy. His commentary at Huffington Post is here and his blog is here. Feldman and PBC discuss the messaging weakness of the Democrats, and failure to size up the effectiveness of GOP attempts to scuttle the entire Obama agenda. We also fault the media for promoting the Tea Party groups and failing to expose the billionaires who pull their strings. In segment 2, starting at 43:50, Carpenter, national director of PDA notes that Blue Dog Democrats were the biggest losers in the midterm rout. Carpenter notes that we also lost Russ Feingold in the Senate and critiques the White House political team. And he points out that the lame duck session will be a challenge, as the report from the deficit reduction commission is due on December 1, which will spark another fight over Social Security. We also talk about the prospect of a progressive challenger to Obama in 2012, and how that could make Obama’s prospects for a second term stronger–by addressing his progressive base on key issues like the war in Afghanistan.
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