Will Dems take power?
The Grand Rapids Press published their analysis of the Dems chances of grabbing control of the Michigan Legislature recently. They felt that the Dems might pick up a seat or two in either chamber, but that the Republicans should still hold on to power in both chambers.
The basic problem with that analysis is that they simply looked at how the district voted in the last election cycle. If both the Democrats and Republicans campaign the way they did before, there isn't much of a hope for change in legislative leadership.
However, and this is the important part, there is still a strong anti-incumbent sentiment with many voters. They've seen Michigan wrestle with a lot of problems and they haven't seen folks on either side of the aisle come up with very many solutions.
Based purely on an anecodotal level of evidence, I have to say that there is a strong enough sentiment of discontent within the populus that if the Dems put forward some specific viable plans and campaigned hard, they could win a few seats that are generally regarded as strongly Republican.
Likewise, if the Republicans did the same thing, they could pick up a few strongly Democratic seats.
The only questions is: does either party have the guts to do something like that? To go out their and campaign on something other than sound-bites and empty promises? To sit in one living room after another and tell the voters of Michigan what they want to do if elected and to face their toughest questions?
I don't actually know the answer to that question, but I can dream of a world where the answer to all of those questions is a resounding "yes".
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D, IL) made it official recently. He publicly said that he would indeed make a run for the White House in 2008.
