Special Elections

Yes, they were bad news for the Democrats. This article makes it seem worse.

http://news.yahoo.com/twin-defeats-spark-democratic-fears-095700782.html

Let's remember that until Tuesday, the Democrats had won every single special election for the House of Representatives in 2009 and 2010, including a huge upset in a solidly Republican district in New York State. The Democratic loss this week in New York City was just as striking, but instead of panicking, as the article says outright, why don't the Democrats, and Republicans, by the way, learn from this?

People are fed up with what's going on in Washington and any incumbent or incumbent party will pay a heavy price in its next election simply because our politicians seem more concerned with scoring political points than actually working together to solve our problems. This happens all the time, but we are in an especially volatile point in our history, many people don't have jobs and more people are living in poverty than at any time in the past 50 years.

We shake our heads and wonder why lawmakers won't help us. Of course, politics has something to do with it, and supporters of each party will say that they have the answer and blame the other party for obstruction or reliance on tired old ideas. That's natural. The point is that things seem to be getting worse. In that environment, nobody wins, and honestly I don't see anyone on the horizon who can come in and lead us to where we need to go. Obama is trying to be that person, as is Romney, Perry and the other Republicans, but they are all bruised. They could rebound, or there might be someone who will come in at the last minute. I remain optimistic, but I'd like the good news to come sooner rather than later.