Senator Bernie Sanders:

One year ago the nation gave a collective sigh of relief as the worst and least popular administration in modern American history came to an end. Not only was the Bush administration heading out the door, but the Republican Party was reeling from two consecutive elections in which it suffered massive losses at all levels.

Today, having already experienced decisive losses in governors' races in New Jersey and Virginia, the Democratic prospects for 2010 appear bleak. Polls show President Obama's approval numbers sagging and some recent "generic ballots" show Republican candidates ahead of Democratic candidates--a huge turnaround over the course of the year. Perhaps most ominously, these new polls show that enthusiasm and interest in voting among Republicans is far higher than with Democrats. Given that off-presidential-year elections (voter participation could fall by 50 million this year compared to 2008) are often dominated by older and more conservative voters, a particularly low voter turnout among Democrats this fall could result in disaster for them. Why has this occurred? What can be done within the next few months to turn this scenario around?  Read More

Congressman Dennis Kucinich:

Kucinich staunchly defended liberalism but alleged that Democrats are not behaving like liberals. "There's nothing liberal about the bailouts. There's nothing liberal about standing by and watching banks use public money to get their executive bonuses. There's nothing liberal about giving insurance companies carte blanche to charge anything they want for health care... Since when did that become liberal?"

"There's nothing liberal about letting coal and oil write climate change legislation," he added. "Are you kidding me?"The 13-year congressman lamented the lack of change in economic policies, tying it to the major problems Democrats are facing.

"The minute the president appointed Tim Geithner and Larry Summers to key policy positions, and the minute that [Ben] Bernanke was named to head the Fed again, we're looking at people who participated in the decline of the economy," he said. "This group has done us a disservice."

"Every area of the economy is still about taking wealth from the great mass of people and putting it into the hands of a few. If you don't have a economic democracy, you don't have a political democracy."  Read more