President Obama speaks to supporters while Vice President Biden looks on during the 'Moving America Forward' rally at Cleveland State University. (PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
What a difference two years makes.
In 2008, President Obama rode into the White House on a wave of broad voter enthusiasm, the likes of which hadn't been seen in this country in decades.
Fast forward two years, and the president's party is expected to get crushed in Tuesday's midterm elections. The latest USA Today/Gallup Poll shows the largest Republican margin in House voting in several generations.
And regardless of the turnout, it's looking more and more like Republicans will win more than the 39 seats needed to gain control of the House.
Experts in both parties keep revising their estimates upward. Many now believe the Democrats will lose more than 50 seats, and some are putting that number as high as 70.
Meanwhile, critics are heaping a lot of the blame on the president.
A piece in the London Telegraph suggests that by abandoning his own talk of bipartisanship, President Obama divided the country and set his party up for defeat.
The piece points out how Bill Clinton has held more than 100 events around the country while President Obama is mostly limiting himself to the friendly blue states. This is striking because Barack Obama rose to fame as a state senator by shooting down the notion of a red America and a blue America.
Many also feel the president didn't use his office to address the most pressing issue, the economy. Instead he focused on the "grand issues," such as health care.
And how's this for symbolism: . In Cleveland, Ohio, on Sunday, he spoke in an indoor arena that was nearly half-empty. And on the eve of the midterm elections, President Obama - the leader of the Democratic party - has no public events on his calendar.
Here’s my question to you: If the Democrats get crushed tomorrow, how much blame does President Obama deserve?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Cliff in Rego Park, New York writes:
Jack, President Obama is not to blame. The Republicans made a cynical bet that the mess they made could not be reversed in two years and refused to cooperate in even most the mundane of issues. The American people and our instant gratification mentality are doing the rest. Rest uneasy, Republicans, the worm turns in an instant.
H. in Georgia writes:
The "Democrats" are all to blame. They didn't LISTEN to the people. The people indicated their desires time and time again, but the Democrats just wanted to tell us what "we needed" instead. Tomorrow they will get what they deserve.
Pat in New Jersey writes:
Jack, How can anything get worse? Nothing got done because we have the party of NO. By adding more Republicans to the mix we will then have a larger party of NO. Obama should have immediately pushed through his policies instead of trying to make nice when he first took office.
Dave writes:
As an independent, I say no! It lies directly on the shoulders of this horribly inept and corrupt Congress. Reid and Pelosi are everything that is wrong with America.
Phil writes:
Unfortunately, I don't think it will serve as a wake-up call. The left-winger/liberal contingent in the U.S. will likely just blame it on racism. They'll continue to beat the dead horse that is George W. Bush, hoping they can continue to pull the wool over everyone's eyes that's realizing Obama and Co. (Reid, Pelosi) are charlatans and empty suits.
Tim writes:
I'm getting to the polls early to vote Democratic, Jack. I dreamed that I was at the pump paying $5 for gasoline again.
Larry in Ohio writes:
Jack, Obama will get some blame, but most of the blame goes to the smug, elite, hard-headed Nancy Pelosi. The real witch in politics is from San Francisco!