If his State of the Union address is any indication, President Barack Obama — and the Democratic Party — are in political straits, says James Taranto, a columnist and editorial board member at The Wall Street Journal.
"It seems to me that Obama is in political trouble,'' Taranto told George Marlin, guest host of "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"With Obamacare kicking in … with the economy, doing a little bit better but still not very well, in terms of the midterm election this is a very favorable line-up for the Republicans in the Senate ….
"All indications are grim for the Democrats and I don’t see what Obama can do to improve that."
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Taranto agreed with Marlin that Americans are bored with Obama — a fact proven by this week's State of the Union address having the lowest number of viewers since an address by George H.W. Bush.
"I've been bored with him since 2009 ... I mean look what happened in 2009, 2010 when he made this effort to sell Obamacare? He gave speech after speech about it, he gave a speech to a joint session of Congress, he gave a State of the Union, and it never caught on. He never won any kind of public support for it," Taranto said.
"They got the law passed because they rammed it through Congress. So... I kind of suspect that people tuned out a long time ago."
Still, Taranto warned the Republicans to pick viable candidates if they want to win this fall.
"The worst thing Republicans can do is nominate idiots for competitive seats. You don't want to end up with another Todd Akin," he said, referring to the former Missouri congressman who sparked a fury by claiming that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant.
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