Dem Reaction to the 'Tighten Up'

Well, they're not technically Dems, but let's start with the Washington Post. Close enough. Hear the hope in these graphs:

Republicans enjoyed a similar 7-point edge on the eve of their 1994 landslide victory.

Other weekend polls by Time and Newsweek magazines continued to show Republicans at a steep disadvantage, with Democrats enjoying double-digit margins in party preferences for the House.GOP strategists said they think their prospects continue to improve as voters digest the guilty verdict against former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, positive economic statistics and the prospect of Democrats taking control of one or both chambers of the legislative branch.

Nancy Pelosi showed yesterday why they've been keeping her under lock and key by pulling out the pre-emptive vote rigging allegations:

Pelosi cautioned that the number of Democratic House victories could be higher or lower and said her greatest concern is over the integrity of the count -- from the reliability of electronic voting machines to her worries that Republicans will try to manipulate the outcome.
"That is the only variable in this," Pelosi said. "Will we have an honest count?''

Really? Is that the only variable? It doesn't matter how much they ever get beat by, they've latched onto this damaging rigged-election meme, and they're never letting go. Exhibit A: Cynthia McKinney, who lost her primary by a whopping 16 points, and refused to acknowledge that she might have, you know, just lost.

They haven't won in so long, they're getting real nervous:

Democrats, mindful of the Republicans' success in getting their voters to the polls in the past two elections, expressed nervousness at signs of tightening in some national polls. But they said private and some public polling in contested House districts continued to show their party in a position to win enough seats to claim the majority.

"I don't know what to make of it," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Last night on Fox, I heard a Democratic strategist on Fox touting the "energized youth vote" as the key to victory, and claiming those cell-phone-only kids weren't being accurately polled, which had a panicky feel to it. I was encouraged. You know why? What does that sound like? Oh, that's right--2004, and 2002, and 2000. Listen, if you rely on college kids to put you over the edge, you're going down.

The Kos kids are riiiiding the wave theory for all it's worth.

I just don't see it. They may take the House, but I don't think it's gonna be by a significant margin, and I think there's still a slim chance we'll actually keep it. You know, if all the cheating works.

Meanwhile, the Post continues its diligent policing of white churches just to make sure no untoward politicking is going on inside them. Black churches? Go for it!

I noticed, the other day, at the rally for Steele, that several reporters were very concerned about whether the black clergy supporting Steele would be in the pulpits this Sunday encouraging folks to vote for him. I can't imagine that would have been a question had the black clregy been supporting a Democrat like they're supposed to.