Coach! We're gonna win by a hundred points.

Son, we still have to play the game.

If you read enough posting boards and even in some media outlets you get the impression that the democrats have already won 2014 and 2016. The lay faithful of the democratic party are so sure of the outcome it is almost guaranteeing a huge surprise.

First of all the writers of posts and blogs have a huge disdain of the tea party. Their posts completely assume that the tea party is just a bunch of country hicks. This is their first mistake. And it seems if you even try to point out anything different you get bombasted with comments about your ignorance. The democratic faithful are seriously unaware of how much of the country is tired of Washington D.C. They don't realize many people aren't joining the tea party outright, but they are listening to what is being said. I don't support the tea party and am a bit scared of their reach, but democrats are completely dismissing them. They may find out the hard way many people don't think the federal govt is the answer or has the solutions we need anymore.

Second the democrats all seem to be in lock step right now and will continue as the republicans struggle. Now there is a tad bit of dent in the armor with the ACA problems and they maybe fixable, but there are other issues that the democrats don't want to face. Sooner or later the problem of the debt and deficit is something the populace is going to demand to be addressed. Some moderate democrats may start breaking ranks and support some Republican initiatives to reduce our government. Add any financial problems for the ACA and many moderates may pull back on supporting quite a few programs to lower govt expenditures.

Many democrats will tout stats that they say shows govt spending and democratic policies help the economy. And they are partially correct. Two problems exist for those facts now. One was there were other factors that also helped at the time. For the great depression WWII played a big role in our economy, not just FDR's initial public works campaign. Another example was the rise of technology and the internet helped the economy and therefore our surpluses of the nineties probably more so than anything Clinton did. Second our budget and debt has never been this high compared to GDP without a strong growth spurt to help us get back to more reasonable ratios. We are spending more without a strong enough economy to balance later. The recovery is taking too long. The drain of social services is adding to the problem more so than benefiting the people receiving. People in the middle class will begin to protest the over reliance on them and start putting pressure on politicians to reduce benefits and if the democrats don't come up with alternate solutions the middle class will start listening to the tea party etc... and this won't be the country hicks the democrats think dominate the tea party's membership. So comparing or touting past successes to say the economy will get better could backfire if it doesn't soon and people see the long term debt as more of a problem than the democrats.

Another problem for the democrats is attitude. Now all sides have the mentality of I'm right their wrong, but there is a growing segment of democrats that seem to fit the old label elitist liberal. They are giving off the attitude that they know what's best for the country and all other ideas are useless. This attitude is different from the uncompromising ideology of tea party purists. It shows itself in their disdain for the tea party, but also comes through in a know it all, look down their nose at the rest of us who can't grasp they know what's best and there is no reason for me to even try to think. This is an intangible attitude, but over time people resent having their thoughts and ideas discounted by someone who holds over their head an air of superiority

The democrats are over confident and over confidence does have some basis to be confident. You can't assume anything though and that is where over confidence comes back to bite you. What I have been trying to convey are some areas that might surprise the democrats or where they are missing the boat and lose their momentum going into 2014 etc.. Another possibility is someone coming out of the blue and taking the country by storm with a whole new message. And on a side note the Governor of Wisconsin was alluding to that last weekend. A bit self serving if you ask me and I noticed a few other commentators saw this point. Yet there is the possibility of this happening because many people are wanting a DC outsider to ride to the rescue.

This post has been written over more than a few lunch hours on a so called "smart
" phone so I really cannot get the flow I want, but the gist is the democrats may look pretty right now and much of the press is all on board, but the game still needs to be played. The democratic establishment will get it handed back to them if they aren't ready to take on our country's problems and think the current Republican implosion is their meal ticket going forward.