THE DEMS PLOT – AT 8:34 A.M. ET:  The Democratic Party is the underdog in this year's midterm election.   And what are they doing?  Are they going Republican, and accepting defeat like gracious ladies and gentlemen?  Are you kidding?  They're getting ready to fight like mad, and with a new, well-developed strategy.  From Dan Balz at WaPo:   

Democrats have a problem and everyone knows it. President Obama calls it a “congenital disease.” If they can’t control it, Obama could spend the final years of his presidency battling not only a Republican House but also a Republican Senate.

Democrats don’t vote in midterm elections. That’s an exaggeration, of course, but the core of the Democratic coalition is made up of many people who turn out to vote only in presidential elections. The Republican coalition — older and whiter — suffers less from midterm falloff.

So much has been made of the building blocks the president assembled to win his two elections — the outpouring of voters younger than 30; the long lines at precincts in African American communities; the support he engendered among the rising Hispanic population; the growing support for him and Democrats generally among unmarried women.

But a Republican victory in a special congressional election in a winnable district in Florida last month has put many Democrats, including the president, on edge. “Our voters . . . get excited about general elections,” Obama said at a recent fundraiser in Houston. “They don’t get as excited about midterm elections.”

And, the strategy:

Democrats are banking on the belief that they can better identify potential supporters, motivate them and get them to the polls — in essence, reshape the midterm electorate to make it look more like the electorate in a presidential year. To try to do so, they will for the first time fully employ the sophisticated tools and techniques used in Obama’s presidential campaigns to aid Senate and some House candidates.

COMMENT:  That is a damned good strategy.  Use your strength.  Do the things that work.  Understand that elections are won, not in pre-election polls, but on election day, and only the people who go to the polls are counted.

The key is turnout, a weak point in Republican history.  A stronger-than-usual Dem turnout can turn this election on its head, and deny Republicans the Senate once again.  What are you doin' about this, fellas?

April 21, 2014