If the media can convince a majority of Americans that Covid comes from bats, Biden isn't senile, and this is a woman, surely shifting blame to the Republicans will be as child’s play

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which way to your dAUGHTER’S GYM CLASS?

Democrats Are Convinced Republicans Will Take the Blame for a Government Shutdown

John Sexton, HotAir:

“With a government shutdown less than a week away, both parties seem convinced the other party is going to take the bulk of the blame when it happens. That dynamic almost certainly means it's going to happen.

“The Washington Post has a story up today in which Democrats vow not to blink this time around.”

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are holding firm to their vow to oppose a relatively straightforward measure to extend government funding past Sept. 30 unless Republicans agree to negotiate on health care...

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) endured heavy criticism from Democrats in and out of Washington after voting in March against blocking a previous Republican funding bill. He pledged that Democrats would be more prepared ahead of the next funding deadline — a rare moment of leverage for Democratic senators because Republicans need their votes to prevent a shutdown.

The story does acknowledge that it's usually the party out of power that gets blamed for these things, but Democrats are confident this time will be different.

Republicans argue Democrats will be blamed for the shutdown because they’re the ones demanding something in exchange for their votes. But Schumer and other Democrats have cited polling showing that more Americans would blame Trump and Republicans for a shutdown than would blame Democrats.

“Who wins in a shutdown? Traditionally, it would be the party in the White House,” said Jim Kessler, a former Schumer aide who is now executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a center-left think tank. “But Donald Trump has been so eager for a showdown and a fight that the old rules of blame may not apply.”

I'm not sure what polling they are relying on but there is a poll out today saying that Republicans will get blamed no matter how the question is framed.

Note the big caveat here. A plurality prefers passing a clean CR.

...despite their support for the Democrats’ voting against a funding bill as a way to signal support for health care, few adults want the government to actually close. A plurality of the public favors both parties passing a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government open at current funding levels (37%) while they debate a longer-term solution. If that’s not possible, fewer voters want a clean bill without changes (21%) vs withholding votes until funding is restored (26%).

….

“Meanwhile, the White House clearly isn't putting much stock in that poll (or whatever Democrats are looking at). An unnamed White House official said their plan was to punish Dems for this.”

“We’re going to extract maximum pain,” said the official, granted anonymity to discuss political strategy, adding that Democrats “will pay a huge price for this.”...

“Historically, it’s the aggressor that always loses,” the senior White House official said. “And quite simply, their constituencies and their priorities are all going to get chewed up, and ours, not so much.”...

Administration officials believe that once a potential shutdown starts, Democrats won’t be able to hold out “very long” and that GOP allies on the Hill are aligned. They “are strapped in for a fight. They’re gonna make them vote five-plus times,” the senior official said...

“We’re bracing for impact,” the White House official said.

Sexton:

“As I described in some detail here, I think the Trump administration does have a potential weakness here that Democrats may be trying to exploit and it doesn't have anything to do with health care issues. Democrats were hesitant to go all in on a shutdown back in March because they were fairly confident that Trump's tariffs were going to lead to an economic downturn. If we were on the cusp of that, they didn't want a government shutdown to confuse people about who was responsible for that downturn in the economy. In other words, they wanted to be able to blame Trump and for Trump to have no way to point the finger back at them.

“But as Ezra Klein pointed out, one of the key things that hand changed was that the expected downturn hadn't happened.”

Trump’s tariffs are unpopular, but what damage they have done to him politically they have already done or they will do over time, as price increases squeeze Americans. We are not in a recession. The economy is not in chaos. Democrats cannot stand back and hope the markets will do their work for them.

….

“The possibility of damaging the economy has been front an center in every past shutdown. And at this moment it would certainly help explain why Democrats are willing to go forward with this despite having not much hope for success in the short term. If the shutdown weakens the economy just enough that they can blame the downturn on Trump's tariffs, that would be a big advantage for them heading into the midterms and beyond. It's risky and very irresponsible but at this point they may feel they have to take the risk because a) their base is demanding they fight and b) things aren't trending in their direction as they'd hoped.”

FWIW: It will be an interesting next couple of weeks; look for 24-hour coverage of the desolation and grief suffered by “ordinary citizens”, replete wih pictures of starving children. The media monkeys have already pre-loaded their articles, and has=ve an entire library of faked photographs left over from Gaza, all of which they’ll use.