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With their handling of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination and the bizarre antics of their extreme supporters, Democrats have “managed to shoot themselves in the foot,” writes John Fund in NRO.
John points to Charlie Cook, veteran political handicapper, who asks whether “those who led the out-of-control demonstrations on Capitol Hill against the Kavanaugh nomination have any understanding of how much damage they did to Democrats and the party’s chances of winning a majority in the Senate.”
Cook thinks they don’t. But he is certain Senate Democrats do.
“The campaign still has more than two weeks to go,” continues Mr. Fund, “but early voting in most states locks up more ballots with each passing day.”
Another October surprise is still possible, but for now, the new conventional wisdom of the 2018 election is set: Democrats had a real chance to ride anti-Trump sentiment and inflict a crushing defeat on Republicans. But their own excesses tripped them up and woke up fatigued Republican voters, reminding them that 2018 was indeed an us-versus-them election. Republicans will probably still lose ground, but for the first time, they are on the offensive in many marginal districts.
Perhaps one lesson from the 2018 election will be that when both President Trump and Democrats run brutal, divide-and-conquer campaigns, Trump just does it better and more effectively.
And when voters finally focus less on personalities and more on issues in the final stages of the campaign, the left-wing lurch by Democrats hasn’t done them any favors in what is still a center-Right country.
Read more from John Fund here.
