The Democrats problem isn't the Republicans.  They had a huge polling advantage and large wins against Republicans in the 2008 elections.  The problem is that the administration hasn't focused on the problem of the economy.  Instead of focusing they have been on this massive social engineering kick.  It could be argued that health care is a part of the recovery, but given the timelines in the current bill, this just isn't true.<p>The sad part is that this is a repeat of the 1970's.  Look at the articles from that era about the "failed experiment" or how the office of the president should be replaced.  Some of that is from Nixon's behavior, but quite a lot of it is economics problems suffered by all the presidents (Nixon, Ford, and Carter).