The Anti-Obama Democrats

From Kim Strassel:

Democrats in deep-red states who voted against health reform and higher spending may yet survive the midterm.

It's 81 days to the election. Expect many of them to be filled with the explanations Democrats are now serving up as to why Nov. 2 is likely to be a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day.

History is against us (they mourn); the party in power usually loses seats in midterms. The economy is horrible (they bewail); and that, of course, is George W. Bush's fault. America woke up on the wrong side of the Posturepedic (they lament); voters are in an anti-incumbent mood, and we've got a fistful of incumbents.

All true, to some pitiable degree. Conspicuously absent from this, however, is any mention of culpability. What if the big reason Democrats are wallowing is because of their votes for the Obama agenda? And what would things look like if they hadn't supported it? Happily, an (admittedly unscientific) experiment exists to offer some insight.

Troll through the voting rolls, and you'll find an exclusive club of three House Democrats running for re-election who voted against the more controversial pieces of the Obama agenda: the $862 billion stimulus, Mr. Obama's $3.5 trillion budget, cap and trade and, of course, ObamaCare. Troll through the polls today, and you'll find a near-exclusive club of three House Democrats who are beating every electoral expectation. Were history, incumbency and the economy the main factors this fall, Idaho's Walt Minnick, Alabama's Bobby Bright and Mississippi's Gene Taylor would be packing up. That they aren't is a resounding statement on a failed Obama vision.

RTWT.