Greg Hollingsworth

With the revelation (or perhaps accusation is more appropriate) today that Senator Clinton has begun push-polling in North Carolina as the straw that broke the camels back, I'm begging. Could everyone please stop talking about how horrible any specific politician is? Seriously, they are all using the same dirty tricks, to win the same dirty job in the same dirty government. So what if Clinton is using push polling? Would you expect anything less from a consummate politician surrounded by and married to consummate politicians/political strategists? If they are using push polling techniques and they are effective, what does that say about voters in our country? What it says is that they are easily swayed and will believe just about anything that someone tells them over the phone. That is a truly sad statement. Here's what I'm really afraid of though, and it has nothing at all to do with who the next occupant of 1600 Pensylvania Avenue happens to be. What I'm afraid of is the Republican party regaining control of congress, that is scary. You know what else, it's probably going to happen. 18 months ago the Democrats managed to gain a slim majority in the House and an even slimmer majority in the Senate (thanks to Joe Lieberman, who is now permanently attached to John McCain's hip). This Democratic led congress claimed a mandate from the people of America. They claimed that the people of this country were tired of politics as usual. So what have we gotten out of this congress, well, one significant bill (raising the minimum wage), a bunch of non-binding resolutions and a slew of watered down legislation that basically gave in to every republican demand so that the bill wouldn't be vetoed. With an approval rating lower than that of President Bush, why would voters send those people back for another term? The Democrats made a lot of promises during the 2006 campaign, and those promises allowed them to swing conrtol of Congress completely for only the fourth time since we began directly electing Senators. How many of those promises have they come through on? Well, how many? They weren't promises made to me (because I didn't vote for them, ok, well, I voted for one of them, but mainly because I was tired of his opponent). With an approval rating hovering in the low 20's, I have to assume that they haven't delivered. The last time that happened was in 1952. Eisenhower and the Republicans swept into power in 1952, and all the congressman that followed him to Washington got sent home in 1954 because they didn't deliver on their promises. The Democrats held congress for the next 40 years. The similarities between the two elections (1952 and 2006) are sort of scary. We were in the middle of an unpopular armed conflict (Korean War - Iraq War), the President's approval ratings were at near historic levels (Truman as low as 22% - Bush as low as 26%), and there was a looming threat to the security of our way of life (USSR - Al qaeda). So will we see history repeat itself? I hope not, and not because I'm a democrat (I am not a member of any political party and I am libertarian in most of my political views). I hope that the Democrats can maintain control of congress because I don't want a government that can't agree to do anything. For once, even if it's only for two years, I would like to see Washington accomplish something. However, my prediction is that it will happen. On the morning of November 5th I think that we will have our first ever black President. Unfortunately for him, he'll be greeted in Washington by a brand spanking new Republican controlled Congress. I hope that i'm wrong, I really do.