OK, Black Tuesday was all the fault of the electorate.

[branford]

29. I'm not defending anything, I'm pointing out the obvious.

You complained that we never heard about Congress's low approval rating. That's simply not true. It was, and is, discussed constantly. However, the approval of Congress overall is not equivalent to the President's approval. As I stated, many people actually like their own Congressman, and the president is a much more powerful leader and public symbol of our party's policies, message, priorities and success, than any individual Congressman or even Senator.

I'm also not certain that last Tuesday would have been any different if Reid took a different tact and permitted contentious votes. Many of the the more liberal laws would have still lost and been an embarrassment for our party as the more conservative or moderate Democrats voted with the Republicans (e.g., gun control, Surgeon General nominee Murthy, etc.), or if these Senators supported the president, they would have likely been even less popular in their homes states, and lost by a larger margin.