CNN

FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

At some point it will become President Obama and the Democrats' recession, not George W. Bush's. If the economy doesn't start to show signs of picking up, Democrats could feel the voters' anger in next year's mid-term elections.

President Obama is traveling a path not unlike the one President Ronald Reagan once traveled and, as my colleague Christine Romans points out, the Democrats could learn something from President Reagan's experience. Both Presidents were wildly popular early on, but unemployment was rising.

In the 1982 elections Reagan's Republican Party lost 26 seats and experts say the scale was tipped when unemployment hit 10-percent. President Obama currently faces a 9.5-percent unemployment rate and now says 10-percent is likely before the year is over. Renowned investor Warren Buffet said this morning on Good Morning America that unemployment could hit 11-percent.

It seems everyone knows someone who has lost their job. While the Obama Administration is busy pointing the finger at Bush, those unemployed Americans who can't find a job will likely be tempted to take it out on whoever is in power when they vote next fall. What remains to be seen is if voters are ready to start returning Republicans to power so soon after the Bush Administration.

Here’s my question to you: Will the voters blame the Democrats for our economic problems in next year's election?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

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FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:

The sleeping giant may be starting to wake up. All it took was: The illegal invasion of Iraq, which led to a war that's now in its sixth year. The destruction of our civil liberties in the name of the war on terror. The quadrupling of oil prices. And the early signs of a recession that could be as bad as anything we've seen in a long time. And suddenly, the American voter is all ears.

The evidence is in the record turnouts for this year's primaries, especially among Democrats. Young people are suddenly showing up to vote in numbers we've never seen before. And based on information from places like Arizona, it looks like this tidal wave of voters is only going to continue to swell right into November.

Politico reports Arizona says voter turnout could be as high as 80%. In 2004 voter turnout hit 61% nationwide – and that was the highest level since 1968.

It's about time. For the first time in our history, our worldwide reputation is shot and our standard of living is beginning to decline. One reason this has happened is we have allowed it to.

By not being proactive and participating in our democracy, the forces that would exploit it and ultimately destroy it have had a free rein. But these voter registration numbers are very encouraging because when Americans finally get up off their collective butts and decide to do something, it's a force that's simply unstoppable.

Here’s my question to you: What does it say about the importance of this election if voter turnout in November could be as high as 80% in some states?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

Read the rest of this entry »