The View From Wisconsin

Here they are - five reasons why the Democrats are going to lose this election:

1. For the last two years - and, for that matter, almost from the moment after the Supreme Court handed down Bush vs. Gore (2000) - the Democrats have believed that this election was "theirs to lose." When you believe that, you get into a mindset that all you have to do is show up, play not to lose, and in the end you'll be handed the White House on a silver platter. We all know about "playing not to lose" around here, and where that gets you.

2. The very process of selecting their candidates essentially torpedoed the candidate with the best chance of winning the overall election. Look back at some of the polls back in January: Hillary was head-and-shoulders ahead of McCain, Huckabee or Romney in practically any head-to-head poll. The long, drawn-out and extremely complicated delegate selection process of the Democratic Party essentially prevented the party from getting behind a candidate early enough to focus on winning the election. It's more or less like the team that plays three straight seven-game playoff series, only to get swept in the finals. Or, more accurately, the team that fights down to the wire to make the playoffs, then runs out of gas and gets swept in the first round.

3. The Democrats have fallen into the "Cult of Personality" around Obama. Since 1963, the Dems have been longing for another charismatic Kennedy-ish standard bearer. Each time one has come up, they've either crashed and burned (RFK, Carter, Gore, Kerry) or have been incredibly ineffective (Wallace, Mondale, Dukakis). That doesn't stop them from trying to make their choice into the Second Coming, though. They've built up the aura around Obama so much, they think that the average voter would feel stupid not to vote for him.

4. The Democrats believe that the conditions that gave them the White House in 1992. "It's the Economy, Stupid" was the rallying cry of the Clinton campaign in '92, and that tied with what was known as "Bush Fatigue" even then is what the Dems believe was how they got the presidency from Bush 41. The problem is, the economy back then was nothing like what it is today - positively or negatively. And, in essence, the American People did decide to "fire" George H. W. Bush - but they believed that their only option was to put a moderate-sounding Clinton in his place. This is the biggest difference between '92 and '08: instead of choosing between keeping Bush and not keeping Bush, the electorate has the option of choosing alternative one and alternative two. Both, in the minds of most voters, are "not Bush" - no matter how much the Obama campaign tries to paint the GOP as "McSame".

5. The Democrats - regularly, repeatedly and without regard to reality - underestimate the American people. The Dems consistently believe that anyone who is a GOP backer is nothing more than a lie-spewing drone who isn't "enlightened" enough to see things "as they really are". What's worse, they don't treat their own base very well either; they basically just "assume" that they'll get the women's vote, the black vote, the environmentalist vote. They don't celebrate or appreciate them - they just take their money and run. And, when they're trying to get elected, they turn their backs on these people because they know they can't get the undecideds to vote for them because of their extreme viewpoints. When they lose elections in areas that they "think" are solidly pro-Democrat, they start arguing about voter fraud and other irregularities - because they can't believe that the American people just do NOT want what they're trying to sell them.

You can talk all you want about where you want to put the lipstick, but in the end, a pig is a pig and a pit bull is a pit bull. And the American people prefer dogs to pigs.