Posted at 3:05 PM ET, 12/ 1/2010 Dems too quick to internalize that losing feeling By Greg Sargent
Outgoing Ohio Governor Ted Strickland erupts in an interview with Sam Stein, blaming Dems for failing to win the argument over the Bush tax cuts
[...] I understand Strickland's frustration, but he's wrong in a crucial sense. If you judge by public opinion, then Dems were winning the argument over the Bush tax cuts, and were in fact successfully selling the idea that the high end rates should expire. Here, for instance, is a new Gallup poll out today finding that 44 percent want to let the tax cuts expire for various categories of wealthy Americans, while only 40 percent want to keep all the tax cuts.
[...] At risk of overgeneralizing, the problem isn't that Dems aren't capable of winning an argument. It's that they don't think they're capable of winning a protracted political standoff, even on an issue where the public is on their side, once Republicans start going on the attack. They seem to set their goal early on at salvaging a compromise, rather than going for the win. As a result, they tend to telegraph weakness at the outset, sending a clear message that they'll essentially give Republicans what they want as long as they can figure out a way to call it a compromise.