Voters are disgusted with the waste and the mismanagment, the incredible special interest self-dealing, and the apparently boundless arrogance of Team Obama generally and the president's studied indifference to facts specifically.
The federal fiasco that was and remains the response to the Gulf spill didn't help either, and the threat that EPA will simply take the power to regulate missions that Congress hasn't given it adds to the growing voter anger.
President Obama's approval rating has sunk and sunk again. His fabled ability on the stumpå failed him long ago and the average voter turns the channel rather than listen to yet another sermon from 1600. The MSNBC chorus sings out every night but the network's ratings reflect the shrinking audience for Obamanomics. And Obamacare's roll out isn't producing converst but pecinct captains --for the Republicans!
If Republicans stay focused on the historic failings of the president and his captains in Congress, pounding again and again on the unemployment rate that was never supposed to go above 8% because of the the stimulus, the massive and wasteful spending that has vanished with the only trace being roadside signs congratulating the Congress on their great work, and the incredible growth of the federal power, they will see voters make the sharp turn that the country desperately needs.
When it happens, the GOP will have to move quickly --within weeks-- to outline a new approach and then dare the president and his remaining allies in the Senate to block it. 2011 will be a full year of confrontation with a president almost certain not to be chastened but angry. To make any impression on the president's certainty about his own gifts will require a huge jolt that only a major electoral defeat can deliver. If next year is to really launch the American recovery it has to begin with a decisive repudiation of the president and the party that led us into this mess.