Steve Hildebrand, a key advisor to Candidate Barack Obama, is concerned that the 2010 midterm elections will result in a slaughter of Democratic office holders. Unfortunately (for Democrats), Hidebrand is right for all the wrong reasons:
Former Obama campaign adviser Steve Hildebrand is concerned Democrats could get “slaughtered” in this fall’s elections if they continue to not live up to their campaign promises.
Hildebrand, one of President Barack Obama’s top advisers during the campaign, told CNN in an interview aired Thursday morning that there is a “real shot” Democrats “are going to get slaughtered in elections this fall if we aren’t leading the efforts to reform Washington.”
“It’s what we campaigned on ’06 and ’08, and if voters don’t see that change, we haven’t lived up to that promise,” he said.
Hildebrand expressed disappointment with the White House’s inability to prevent the ethical scandals swirling around some Democratic lawmakers.
“I don’t think anybody in Washington is doing enough” to fight corruption, Hildebrand said.
There are several things wrong with this analysis. First, there isn’t much even Barack Obama himself can do about corruption in Congress. The culture of corruption meme so successfully spun by Democrats in the 2006 midterm against the Republican majority will boomerang on Democrats in 2010. Notwithstanding the Massa drama, the 2010 election season saw the conviction of William “Cold Cash” Jefferson and the resignation (albeit temporary but in reality permanent) of Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) from the most powerful position in Congress. These guys were on the take long before Barack Obama won the political lottery ticket of a lifetime (to paraphrase Dick Gephardt).
Washington, DC will not be any more reformed by a product of the Daley/Chicago political machine than by a blue blood country club Republican. Reform comes from the grass roots, the first signs of which emerged last spring in the Tea Party protests. There is a problem in Washington that afflicts every politician and inflames more voters every day. It’s called Money, Power and Accountability. Money and Accountability are the twins that occupy the thoughts and minds of taxpayers every day. But Money and Power are the drivers of current legislative decision making. The 2010 midterms will be an interesting spectacle as Accountability is reintroduced to the process. Accountability is the banquet of consequences that has the Democrats worried as hell about the midterms.
