Obama Was a Problem for the Democrats

At AP, Lisa Lerer reports that the Obama team seldom mentions one key stat: more than 1,030 seats -- the number of governorships, and congressional and state legislative seats that Democrats lost during Obama's tenure.

"What's happened on the ground is that voters have been punishing Democrats for eight solid years — it's been exhausting," said South Carolina state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, who lost two gubernatorial campaigns to Nikki Haley, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for ambassador to the U.N. "If I was talking about a local or state issue, voters would always lapse back into a national topic: Barack Obama."
...
After this year's elections, Democrats hold the governor's office and both legislative chambers in just five coastal states: Oregon, California, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware. Republicans have the trifecta in 25, giving them control of a broad swath of the middle of the country.

Obama was not good at party-building.

It's a political reality that Obama has only been willing to acknowledge publicly after his party's devastating November losses. He's admitted he failed to createemoc "a sustaining organization" around the political force that twice elected him to office.

"That's something I would have liked to have done more of, but it's kind of hard to do when you're also dealing with a whole bunch of issues here in the White House," he said at his year-end press conference.

Maybe DWS was not the smartest choice to head DNC.

State parties languished and the Democratic National Committee struggled with dysfunction and debt.

"We built this beautiful house, but the foundation is rotten," said South Carolina Democratic Chairman Jaime Harrison, a candidate to lead the Democratic National Committee. "In hindsight we should have looked at this and said, 'Maybe the state parties should be strong.'"

DNC Emails

Aaron Blake reports at The Washington Post that Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz had to quit as DNC chair because of thousands of leaked emails. (WikiLeaks database here.)

Wasserman Schultz's resignation announcement Sunday afternoon comes as a bad situation just keeps getting worse -- and appears as though it might continue to do so. That's because WikiLeaks has so far released nearly 20,000 emails, new details are still being discovered, and there is still the prospect of additional, damaging emails coming to light.

Many of the most damaging emails suggest the committee was actively trying to undermine Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign. Basically all of these examples came late in the primary -- after Hillary Clinton was clearly headed for victory -- but they belie the national party committee's stated neutrality in the race even at that late stage.

...
While the Sanders emails have gained the most attention, some of the more interesting emails involve a peek behind to curtain of how party officials talk about major donors.

In a May 16 exchange about where to seat a top Florida donor, national finance director Jordan Kaplan declared that "he doesn’t sit next to POTUS!" -- referring to President Obama.

“Bittel will be sitting in the sh---iest corner I can find,” responded Kaplan's deputy, Alexandra Shapiro. She also referred to other donors as "clowns."

At The Tampa Bay Times, Alex Leary reports this morning:

A loud, angry group of protesters nearly drowned out Debbie Wasserman Schultz this morning as she called for unity at a Florida delegation breakfast.

"Shame. Shame. Shame," they yelled, holding signs that read "email, a reference to the WikiLeaks controversy.

"So I can see there's a little bit of interest in my being here," the Florida Democrat said, looking shaken as police moved in to control the crowd.

"We have a lot to do," Wasserman Schultz said, shouting above the boos. "We know that the voices in this room, that are standing up and being disruptive, we know that's not the Flordia we know. The Florida we know is united.

You Can Keep It

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy has posted quotations from 61 House Democrats:

Let’s not forget that it wasn’t just President Obama who repeatedly told people that if they like their healthcare plan, they could keep it. When Obamacare was finally passed in the House, 219 Democrats voted for it, repeating the same false promise as the President did to the American people. Tomorrow, House Democrats have an opportunity to clarify whether they truly meant for people who liked their healthcare plan to be able it keep it, or if this was just a sales tactic to shove an already unpopular bill through Congress.

Running into Democrats who can’t quite remember making this promise? We’ve compiled a few examples for you below. We fully expect them all to be “yes” votes on Chairman Upton’s “Keep Your Health Plan Act” (HR 3350).

Oh, and pay special attention to the highlighted Members. They originally made this promise, but have since “updated” their websites. Whatever is plaguing Healthcare.gov must be catching…

...

• Rep. Van Hollen: “If you like your doctor and your plan, you can keep them.” (Press Release, 7/14/2009)
• Rep. Wasserman Schultz: “Let me be clear: if you like your current plan, you’ll be able to keep it. Rather, we will build on our current system, so we can give you the freedom to choose what works best for you and your family. If you like your doctor, keep your doctor. If you like your current plan, keep your current plan. If you don’t, or if you don’t have one, then get one that works for you.” (Press Release, 7/1/2009)
• Rep. Watt: “Under the ACA, those who already have health insurance coverage under the following plans will continue to enjoy their coverage without interruption and without taking any action: Employer-sponsored plans” (Obamacare FAQ)
• Rep. Waxman: “If you like your doctor and your current plan, you keep them. But we fundamentally reform the insurance company practices that are failing our families.” (Press Release, 3/21/2013)

DNC Chair: Wrong, But Not False

In August, Politico reported on dissatisfaction with Debbie Wasserman Schultz:

Many of Obama’s advisers have quietly begun questioning whether they should have picked Wasserman Schultz, an outspoken Florida congresswoman, as his DNC chairwoman. She has clashed with Chicago over her choice of staff and air-time on national TV shows — and they think she comes across as too partisan over the airwaves
.
Obama’s brain trust secretly commissioned pollster David Binder to conduct an internal focus study of the popularity of top Obama campaign surrogates. Number one was former press secretary Robert Gibbs, followed by Cutter. Traveling press secretary Jen Psaki, who was added to a second study, was third. Axelrod, Plouffe and current White House press secretary Jay Carney were bunched in the middle. Wasserman Schultz ranked at the bottom.

Her recent exchange with Piers Morgan probably confirms these doubts:

Piers Morgan, CNN: The really important horse that should be flogged is the behavior and the statements of those who are in positions of responsibility and we would assume knowledge. And it's pretty unAmerican, pretty unAmerican to be putting up completely false statements before you know the facts, isn't it?

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DNC chair: Piers, it is not okay for you to be saying that the administration was putting out completely false statements. They put out information that they had at the time based on the intelligence that they were given --

Piers Morgan: That turned out to be completely wrong.

Wasserman Schultz: Well that doesn't mean it was false. It doesn't mean that it was deliberate. It means that.

Morgan: What?! Now wait a minute. If you put out a false statement, then it's false, it's wrong. It's both of those things.

American Crossroads v. Wasserman Schultz

The Hill reports:

The conservative group American Crossroads went on the attack against Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, dubbing her "Debbie Downer" after a recent rhetorical misstep.

American Crossroads, the independent GOP-leaning group founded by Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, released the video, which features cuts of some of the new DNC chairwoman's more controversial remarks.

Wasserman Schultz, who's also a Florida congresswoman, said in a weekend interview that Republicans "literally" wish to revive Jim Crow laws, in the form of new voter restrictions. Republicans pounced, and she subsequently issued a statement regretting her choice of language.

The sing-songy Crossroads video lampoons some of her other statements, such as her labeling of the Republican budget as "literally a death trap for seniors," or when she called the GOP "anti-women." And Crossroads President Steven Law called her "Nancy Pelosi without the charm.”

It's part of a new offensive by Republicans as of late against Wasserman Schultz; they seem to relish the political traction they get out of some of their more strident language. They like to think she's the Democratic equivalent of Michael Steele, the former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman who was prone to gaffes.