Change is in the air!

After seven plus years of the disastrous Bush administration the American electorate wants change and as paradox over at The Left Coaster points out it is a great opportunity for the Democrats.

Voter participation rates continue show massive Democratic advantage in the same scope of the facts above, if that were somehow possible, but the amazing numbers are right there: CA 4,416,779 // 2,565,761; CT 337,269 // 146,933; NV 117,559 // 44,315…..If anyone ever needed concrete demonstration that the state of the economy and the popularity of a president motivates voters, well, there it certainly is.

The exodus of House Republicans continues at an amazing pace, with at one point a jaw-dropping surrender of five Republican incumbents in five days, for a total of 28 in the cycle. If one views the hypothesis of great change afoot from a feisty proud liberal with skepticism, certainly the utterly bleak assessments from so many Republican political professionals should give one pause.

If things couldn’t get any worse for Republicans, their current Presidential frontrunner is mocked as “Juan McCain” by the racist right wing even as he is hopelessly entangled in sex and lies, my my my, the GOP certainly has a winner there.

For the first time in many election cycles abortion will not play a significant part in this election. Over at The Moderate Voice Shaun Mullen has an excellent post on what support for the Rethuglicans has gotten the Social conservatives.

The issues this election cycle will be the economy and the occupation of Iraq. With 70% of the American public thinking the occupation is at least in part responsible for the bad economy the two issues are tied together. As Jazz discussed below free trade in general and NAFTA specifically should be a campaign issue. Like the war/occupation of Iraq Barack Obama is in a much better position to go after McCain and the Republicans. In addition to the impact it has had on US workers NAFTA has had a severe impact on rural Mexico and has been in part responsible for the increasing number of illegals coming from Mexico. This is also something that should be pointed out in the campaign.

This is a golden opportunity to change the direction of the country. If Hillary loses Texas and fails to receive a large majority in Ohio she should leave the race so the Democrats can go after McCain and the Republicans at once.