Mitch McConnell: Republicans "Got Our Groove Back"
With the 2010 campaign heating up, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is laying out his party's strategy, proclaiming that the GOP has got its "groove back" and will reverse "the damage Democrats have done."
In his remarks to a conference of young Republicans, McConnell pushed a message of failed Democratic promises and a Republican plan on how to counter a Democratic political agenda that he says has run rampant.
"On issue after issue, the administration's solutions to our problems have only made our problems worse," McConnell said, according to excerpts released ahead of time by his office. "And yet they still crave more power, more of your tax dollars, more responsibility. Well, Americans are tired of politicians who promise one thing and deliver another."
"We broke out of the Washington echo chamber and fought the government-driven solutions that Democrats were proposing," he added. "We got our groove back."
McConnell is playing heavily off of recent polling data that shows support of President Obama and the Democratic Party is on the decline. A recent CBS News poll shows that Mr. Obama's approval rating has dropped to a record-tying low of 44 percent.
"The cracks in the Democrats' foundation continued to spread. And today, just a year and a half after Democrats took over... virtually every survey you look at shows that Americans have lost faith in the Democrat leadership and in government period," McConnell said. "As it turns out, when your entire pitch to the American people is that government will solve your problems, people get upset when government can't deliver. That's one reason Democrats are so unpopular right now. It's why Republicans are on a comeback. And we got there by listening, rather than talking."
However, other polls suggest that the Republican message may not be as effective as McConnell is suggesting. According to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, only 26 percent of Americans have a great/good deal of confidence in Congressional Republicans to make the right decisions for the country. The poll also shows that Democrats still hold an edge in public trust regarding handling of the economy 42-34.
McConnell also criticized the Obama administration, especially on their handling of the Gulf Oil Spil.
"It's not that the Democrats haven't been busy. They've been busier than ever," McConnell said. "But rather than being busy addressing the crises in front of them, they've all adopted Rahm Emanuel's 7-word manifesto for governance: 'Never let a crisis go to waste.'"
McConnell's speech comes on the heels of the president's campaign swing through Missouri and Nevada where he stepped up his criticism the Republican Party.
At a fundraiser for Democratic Senate hopeful Robin Carnahan in Missouri, the president said, "Sometimes I wonder if that 'NO' button is just stuck in Congress. They can't do what's right for the American people." He added: "It's a little odd getting lectures on sobriety from folks who spent like drunken sailors in the last decade."