THIS IS WHAT DEATH ROW MUST FEEL LIKE – AT 7:48 P.M. ET:  The thinking in political circles this Sunday night is that Democrats are in for unpleasantries on Tuesday.  And the pessimism seems to deepen with the hour.  From The Politico:

Now, for Democratic consultants and campaign officials who have plotted and strategized for months to preserve the embattled House majority, there’s nothing left to do but sit and wait for the expected horrors of Election Day to unfold.

There is nearly uniform consensus among Democratic campaign professionals that the House is gone — the only question, it seems, is how many seats they will lose.

While few will say so on the record for fear of alienating party officials or depressing turnout, every one of nearly a dozen Democratic House consultants and political strategists surveyed expect a GOP majority to be elected Tuesday — the consensus was that Democrats would lose somewhere between 50 and 60 seats.

A senior party consultant who was on the low end with his predictions said the party would lose between 40 and 50 seats. On the high end, one Democratic consultant said losses could number around 70 seats.

All spoke to the grimness of the mood.

And...

Already, the finger-pointing is beginning. With outside conservative groups pouring millions of dollars into races across the country, some operatives singled out liberal interest groups for not engaging in the election...

...But, most of the consultants said, much of the post-election scrutiny would surround President Barack Obama and a White House political operation that over the past two years struggled to sell an ambitious agenda that turned out to be radioactive to a wide swath of the electorate.

“Here’s the part of this that bothers me the most: This is not an embracing of Republicans. It’s a rejection of Democrats,” said Andrew Myers, a veteran Democratic pollster who worked on several House campaigns.

COMMENT:   What is remarkable is that the arrogance of the Democrats, the president in particular, seems to have gotten worse during the campaign.  The Dems seem to be saying, "Who are those peasants out there?  Who let them vote?  Who let them speak?"  Attitudes like that do not endear a party to the public.

October 31, 2010