OH, JUST GIVE US ONE MORE CHANCE – AT 9:17 A.M. ET:  Well, at least the Dems are aware of their problems.  Seems that some of their major voting blocs from 2008 are, shall we say, a bit less enthusiastic about the Democratic cause this year.  Gee, I wonder why?  Didn't they get the change they believed in?  From The Washington Post:

As political gambles go, it's a big and risky one: $50 million to test the proposition that the Democratic Party's outreach to new voters that helped make Barack Obama president can work in an election where his name is not on the ballot.

The standard rule of midterm elections is that only the most reliable voters show up at the polls, so both parties have traditionally focused on the unglamorous and conventional work that turns out their bases. But this year, the Democrats are doubling down on registering and motivating newer voters -- especially the 15 million heavily minority and young, who made it to the polls for the first time in the last presidential election.

"It's a great experiment to see whether we can bring out voters whose only previous vote was in 2008," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The party's overall budget for reaching new voters is more than twice as big as the $17 million it spent during the tumultuous 2006 midterm, which returned control of both houses of Congress to the Democrats.

Much about its "Vote 2010" effort has that way-back feel of two years ago: legions of canvassers going door-to-door, a stream of inspirational videos, an e-mail list of more than 13 million, and ads on Web sites including Latina.com, BlackPlanet.com, YELP.com and DailyCandy.

COMMENT:  Yeah, real inspiring.  Nothing, of course, about the great issues of the day.  This is the sixties mentality in full bloom – it's all about identity politics.  Who needs issues?  Who needs a governmental program? 

The subtext here is "scare."  The Democrats will run by scaring people.  "They're going to take it away," they'll tell blacks, Latinos, and any other group they've got in their files. 

But, however seedy the tactic is, it can work.  It's worked before.  And I don't see the GOP working on counter-tactics.  I hope I'm wrong.

June 20, 2010