Sequestration

Why Democrats Are So Confident Of A Sequestration Victory

Brian Beutler | February 25, 2013, 2:13PM

President Barack Obama

If it appears to you that Democrats are approaching the Friday sequestration deadline with greater poise than the GOP, you're not mistaken.

Democrats enjoy a massive public relations advantage over the GOP. Voters are prepared to blame Republicans. The Democrats have an unusually steady message. Republicans are lurching from message to message as they try futilely to blame Obama for sequestration's very existence, while contending that its consequences won't be so dire (except when they contend it will hollow out the military) and to argue just as futilely that Obama's revenue demand is an act of duplicity.

But Democrats are also confident because they have an institutional memory of winning a similar fight, when Republicans shut down the government in 1995.

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