Democrats facing Terrible Tuesday, polls say. So Biden heads to NY23 in last-minute rescue mission

It's looking like a dark day for Democrats tomorrow.

In the Virginia gubernatorial race, polls suggest Republican Bob McDonnell is poised for a rout.

And even in New Jersey, even with a not-exactly-photogenic Republican candidate Chris Christie (the overweight pol is seen above shaking hands with voters in June) and a last-minute appeal from the ever-photo-ready, stylishly-svelte President Obama, incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine is behind in the polls.

So, suddenly, Democrats are looking for hope in a New York congressional district so far north that it abuts Canada. There, a Republican family feud spurred by conservative ideologues could provide the party's only good news of the day.

Even that is a long shot -- the latest Public Policy Polling survey has conservative Doug Hoffman winning over Democrat Bill Owens by 17 points. And that's after Tea Party activists forced Dede Scozzafavo out of the race, prompting the Republican assemblywoman -- with a push from the White House -- to endorse Owens. So the Obama administration is dispatching Vice President Biden to stump for Owens today.

You can tell things are not looking good because Democrats are talking about how worrisome a Hoffman victory would be for the Republican Party. Take a listen to James Carville, waxing nostalgic for the "big tent" Republican Party. If you're not a Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin kind of Republican, he said, then conservative activists are "going to primary you."

The Republican Party seems to be going through some kind of purge, returning to its roots as an anti-tax, anti-spending, anti-government movement, with litmus tests for abortion and gay marriage. The Carville thesis is that if the GOP goes Right, it is doomed from winning national elections in the future.

Small comfort if Democrats lose the trifecta on Tuesday.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Photo credit: Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images North America

Comments

[Gerardo Garcia]

The latest elections is a sign of how much leftist the current Administration is, I am glad that finally the people has come to the realization of the BIG presidential election mistake.

Now it's a matter of making sure that mainstream candidates consolidate their victories by good margins, otherwise the Left may still have a chance of stealing elections via fraud allegations (does Al Franken rings a Bell??)

[joe]

The talking heads haven't a clue. The Republican party in NY is not going to the extreme right. They just couldn't support a far left liberal running as a Republican. Republican Dede Scozzafava was to the left of the democrat running in this race and the moderates and right wing of the NYS Republican party could not stomach that.

[Carl]

"Small comfort if Democrats lose the trifecta on Tuesday."

I don't understand how a Congressional seat Republicans have held for over a century is part of the "trifecta."

I also don't understand how comments from James Carville, who certainly has had no problem predicting bad times for Democrats in the past, tell us about anything.

And I definitely don't get what Christie's weight or Obama's weight have to do with anything. The only thing I notice is that Christie has been hyped as a superstar for years, and yet he is barely scraping through when it counts.

[Ron Paul Republican and Tea Partier]

Who listens to Carville? He's a hot air-blowing goofball.

Carville thesis is that if the GOP goes Right, it is doomed from winning national elections in the future.

Yeah, it really helped last year to try to push us to the middle, didn't it?

Get a new thesis, Carville.

[Millard]

Hahaha. Come on, Carville. Fresh off your loss on Abdullah-Abdullah's camapaign in Afghanistan, you're wrong again. Ronald Reagan himself ran as a conservative candidate against liberal Republican Gerry Ford in the 1976 primaries when Ford was president. I know you're just trying to spin and don't really believe what you say, but really, to say Reagan's tent fell? A Democrat running as a Republican has been exposed. The open tent doesn't mean only Republicans like Powell and Dede who endorse Democrats. We tried that with McCain, and he -- of course -- lost to a real Democrat. If you want a Democrat, you vote for one. Why vote for an imitation? Carville's really just a very poor, very ignorant guy who stepped in it by having the good luck to "run" a skilled candidate in Clinton in a three-party race where 43% was enough to win.

[JL]

Carville is clueless as are all other liberal dems..40% of Americas identify themselves as conservative while only 20% say they are liberal..the conservative "tent" is twice the size of the liberals..and moderates don;t like left wingers that are running our coutnry into the ground. Left wingers will find decreasing tolerance for Obama among the moderates as the effects of his personal charisma wear off.

[NH]

Carville is like a little dog barking at your heels... you kick him aside and keep going.

If Hoffman loses to Owens I would suspect foul play, after all, it's Democrats!