As Washington busies itself with healthcare and climate change, many have nearly forgotten the wars we’re fighting.  Monday marked a tragic milestone as troop deaths in the War on Terror passed 5,000, a stark reminder of the sacrifice that our men and women in uniform make for their country.

USA Today: Deaths of U.S. troops exceed 5,000 in wars

David Brooks has a must-read this morning in the New York Times.  As some of my regular readers may know, I’m someone who falls in line with the Brooks-o-Meter that Politico introduced during the election.  The concept was that when Brooks offered a positive opinion of Obama, the center-right in America tended to follow a similar track of favorability.  Today’s column from Brooks illustrates the dramatic shift of moderates that we have seen over the past few months.  As the Washington Post/ABC News and USA Today/Gallup polls showed yesterday, the country is turning on Obama, and much of this change comes from middle-of-the-road voters.  Brooks compares the hard-line Democratic leadership to the Republican Party that turned so many away.

It was interesting to watch the Republican Party lose touch with America. You had a party led by conservative Southerners who neither understood nor sympathized with moderates or representatives from swing districts.

 

They brought in pollsters to their party conferences to persuade their members that the country was fervently behind them. They were supported by their interest groups and cheered on by their activists and the partisan press. They spent federal money in an effort to buy support but ended up disgusting the country instead.

 

It’s not that interesting to watch the Democrats lose touch with America. That’s because the plotline is exactly the same. The party is led by insular liberals from big cities and the coasts, who neither understand nor sympathize with moderates. They have their own cherry-picking pollsters, their own media and activist cocoon, their own plans to lavishly spend borrowed money to buy votes.

Liberals actually believe that Americans favor their policies on the stimulus, healthcare, budget, and cap and trade.  They have quickly travelled down a path that has weakened them to a point of desperation, and in the process, they have strengthened the opposition.

A few months ago, one would have believed this statement from Brooks to be apocrypha:

Every cliché Ann Coulter throws at the Democrats is gloriously fulfilled by the Democratic health care bills.

Moderate conservatives like Brooks would never have offered such credence to a vile rhetoritician like Coulter during the Bush years.  But conservatives can all find common ground in opposition to the Democratic majority because they have gone too far to the left.  Liberals have proven themselves a caricature of what those on the right have feared for years.

This bodes poorly for America.  We can be confident that voters will reduce Democratic majorities in the midterms, but there will be a long wait for that.  Even then, when Democrats lose seats, they will lose the Blue Dogs and moderates who represent a hopeful element of the Democratic Party.  Still remaining will be Pelosi, Waxman, and others.

When the GOP regains the majority (this will happen eventually), we must be careful to not misinterpret our electoral victories.  Americans don’t want partisanship and ideological agendas; they want policies that reflect their personal beliefs, which are far more moderate than Congress can seem to grasp.  Brooks closed with a sad truism:

And so here we are again. Every new majority overinterprets its mandate. We’ve been here before. We’ll be here again.

Current Brooks-o-Meter rating: Bitter.

Following this morning’s Washington Post poll, another poll, from USA Today/Gallup, cites more results that should worry the White House.

The public’s confidence in President Obama’s ability to handle the economy is eroding amid concern about higher federal spending and expanding government power, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds — a development that could complicate his efforts to push a health care plan through Congress in the next few weeks.

 

In the survey, taken Friday through Sunday, Americans by 49%-47% disapprove of his handling of the economy, and by 44%-50% disapprove of his handling of health care.

Obama’s overall approval rating is now down to 55%, which makes him the third least popular president at the six-month mark since WWII.  The rapid drop in approval likely comes from the association he has to unpopular policies.

•59% say his proposals call for too much government spending.

 

•52% say they call for too much expansion of government power.

 

•Expectations about when the economy will recover are souring. In February, the mean or average prediction for a turnaround was 4.1 years; now it’s 5.5 years.

 

•There’s limited faith in his economic stimulus package, especially when asked for its likely impact on their own finances. A third predict it will make things better for their families in the long term; a third say it will make things worse.

America’s Health Insurance Plans has launched a seven-figure ad buy.  The trade association supports reform, but it’s not really clear what that means.  The ominous tone, however, almost seems like a threat to anyone voting against a healthcare bill.

Voter frustration with Democrats is growing, which seems to have led to a surge in donations for Republicans.  June fundraising numbers are in, and the RNC raised $8 million, more than a $2 million increase from May.  This gives them $24 million cash-on-hand, with no debt.

Last month, Democrats were already behind $10 million in cash-on-hand, not to mention their $5.6 million in debt.  Their position will likely worsen this month.  Watch for the DNC’s numbers soon.

Now on the sidebar of War Room Alerts, you can follow me on Twitter.  Scroll down the page, and on the right-hand side you’ll see my Twitter feed.  In addition to highlighting blog posts from WRA, I point out other important news from around the web.

Every morning, I wake up at 4 AM to pull clips, but before I look at the New York Times, I check the latest site statistics.  It’s always an exciting start to the day because in the past few weeks, the War Room Alerts audience has quadrupled.  Even more exciting is that my readers typically return several times each day.  Yesterday was another new record for both unique audience and total visitors, with my unique audience total rising by more than one-third from the previous record last week.

Please continue spreading the word.  While War Room Alerts is doing far better than I ever anticipated, I need your help to keep it going. 

When you like something I write, click the Digg button under the blog post.  Also remember to follow me on Twitter where I highlight coverage not mentioned on the blog.  Retweet news you like so that your Twitter followers learn about WRA.

And as I’ve asked before, tell your friends and colleagues to visit War Room Alerts. 

Again, thank you all for helping to make this site a success!  Keep building the momentum.

With three months remaining in the fiscal year, the United States has broken a record for its highest annual deficit.  Never before has the deficit reached $1 trillion, but we are now to $1.1 trillion and counting. 

With voters worried about government spending stemming from the TARP funds and stimulus package, this will be a point the GOP should discuss in the coming weeks.