According to this Reuters article, House and Senate Democrats can officially start worrying about the midterm elections. Here’s why Democrats should worry:

The U.S. economy will likely start growing again in the second half of this year but unemployment will likely keep rising through 2010 to peak over 10 percent, the Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday.

“The growth in output later this year and next year is likely to be sufficiently weak that the unemployment rate will probably continue to rise into the second half of next year and peak above 10 percent,” CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf said in prepared testimony to the U.S. House Budget Committee.

It will likely take several years for the unemployment rate to fall back to levels seen before the recession hit, in the neighborhood of 5 percent, he said in the prepared remarks.

I wouldn’t want to run as a Democrat who voted for Tim Geithner’s bailouts, Pelosi’s stimulus bill and President Obama’s failed economic policies. I’d be particularly worried after watching the bloodbath that California elitists suffered last Tuesday.

Rush was right in describing Tuesday’s vote as a political nuclear blast. It isn’t a stretch to say that most people are disgusted with the federal government in general and with the Obama administration’s policies in specific. They aren’t seeing results that are changing their lives.

In 1992, George H.W. Bush insisted that the recession had ended. That was later confirmed. Bill Clinton insisted that it hadn’t ended, even saying that President Bush 41 was out of touch. The Clinton gambit payed off because, while the recession had technically ended, people hadn’t noticed it in their lives.

This recession may or may not be history when the 2010 midterm elections are held but it’s almost certain that people will be feeling pessimistic about the future, especially if the unemployment rate tops 10 percent. Running into that headwind will prove to be quite the challenge.

That’s why Democrats can start worrying right now.

Technorati: Recession, Economy, Unemployment, Bailoutmania, Stimulus Bill, Omnibus Bill, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Tim Geithner, Election 2010

Cross-posted at California Conservative