Ron Dzwonkowski in the Detroit Free Press has a column that sounds the familiar theme — among Democrat and Republican pundits alike — that the GOP is in big trouble for the election.

WIN OR BLOW IT? Odds favor sweep for Democrats next year, but party could yet find a way to lose

The table has never been better set for Democrats to take control of the country next year and hold on to it for a long time. But never underestimate the Democratic Party’s ability to blow it. Consider: We have an unpopular Republican president who is struggling to extract some success out of an even-less-popular war that the United States started under a premise that was proved wrong. His fellow Republicans are bailing out of Washington like rats off a sinking ship. Veteran GOP lawmakers are quitting Congress after losing control to the Democrats last year. Investigations and scandals abound.

And that’s just in Washington. Across the country, the gap between rich and poor is widening at the expense of the middle class; there are way more poor than rich, and guess how the poor tend to vote? Nearly 16% of the country has no health insurance. The homeland doesn’t feel any more secure since 9/11. From New Orleans to Minneapolis to that water main in Livonia in July, the nation’s infrastructure appears to be falling apart. Illegal immigrants keep pouring across the border. Gas prices are too high. And when was the last time you talked to someone who said they were working less but earning more?

Add to all that history: Only once since the Roosevelt-Truman era has the country kept one party in the White House for more than eight years — when Republican Ronald Reagan handed the reins over to the first President George Bush, who was out of office in four. So 2008 will be a great year to be a Democrat, a cakewalk to power, all the power.

Isn’t it a bit early for all this? The current conventional wisdom may certainly turn out to be true. But it takes not one iota of thought, imagination, or wisdom to say that tomorrow will be exactly like today. Consider just how far the conventional wisdom of November 7, 1972 was from that of August 9, 1974.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 at 7:18 am and is filed under Democrats, General, Republicans, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.