WASHINGTON: Candidates plunged into feverish, final-day campaigning Monday in congressional elections that were expected to strip Democrats of their majority in the House of Representatives and snarl President Barack Obama’s agenda in the final two years of his term.
Obama has retreated to the White House from a final blitz through four states to wait what was likely to be a dismal outcome for Democrats who are suffering deeply from voter anger over near-10 percent unemployment, lagging economic growth and a burst real estate bubble that cost millions of Americans their life savings when banks foreclosed on mortgages.
Obama’s last appearance Sunday also signaled Democrat worries about significant losses in state governors’ races. The president closed out his whirlwind weekend political push with an appearance for Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and a plea for Democrats to go to the polls Tuesday.
"Don’t let anybody tell you this fight isn’t worth it," Obama told the friendly crowd Sunday at Cleveland State University, ticking off the accomplishments of his first two years in office. "It’s always been hard to bring about change."
Republicans, bolstered by the ultraconservative tea party movement, are riding high on Obama’s inability to produce a strong economic rebound from what has become known as the Great Recession, a name that harkens back to the devastating Great Depression of the 1930s.
While the economy is growing again —albeit slowly — and unemployment has stopped increasing, Obama and the Democrats have been unable to make their case with the voters that Republicans were responsible for the downturn and should not be given a fresh chance.
Obama doesn’t face voters again until 2012, a fact that also is believed to have tamped down Democrat enthusiasm even as Republicans momentum continued to build — aided by the tea party phenomenon that sprang to life after Obama’s victory two years ago.
The movement’s most visible proponent, former Republican vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has successfully sniped at Obama and the Democrats throughout the campaign. She landed a shot again Sunday.
"You blew it, President Obama," she said on Fox News. "We gave you the two years to fulfill your promise of making sure that our economy starts roaring back to life again."
That kind of simple message — grafted onto Republican promises to shrink government and taxes — has gained a massive following among disaffected voters.
Obama and the Democrats can boast of major legislative achievements during the first two years of his presidency — a major overhaul of the US health care system and new tougher regulations on the financial industry — but those accomplishments are complex and hard to turn into a simple campaign sales pitch.
In Alaska, Palin’s home state, a particularly interesting race was shaping up, one that could give the Democratic candidate for Senate an upset victory.
Republican candidate Joe Miller, who is backed by Palin and the tea party, is stumbling. Incumbent Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski is making a rare write-in effort after losing the primary to Miller. That has opened the field for little-noticed Democrat Scott McAdams who is benefiting from a split among conservatives. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has poured more than $160,000 into the once-ignored race.
"We believe that Scott McAdams actually has a real chance of winning this race," committee chairman Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, said Sunday.
The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, was airing a new ad across the country that features Obama warning of record cuts in education and rollbacks in financial accountability if Republicans take control of Congress.
Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele dismissed concerns of government gridlock if Republican lawmakers refuse to compromise with Democrats on issues such as deficit spending and taxation.
In many races, large numbers of voters have made their choices. In Ohio, where Democrats could lose up to six House seats, more than 721,000 votes have been cast. California officials already had in hand almost 2.5 million ballots, and Florida officials had almost 1.7 million.
More than 13.5 million votes have been cast early, either at ballot boxes or by mail. Four years ago, during the last congressional midterm election, some 19 million people voted before Election Day.
