Former New York City mayor and Newsmax columnist Ed Koch is predicting that Republicans will seize both the House and the Senate in the upcoming midterm elections.
Koch is blaming voters' profound disappointment in the leadership of President Barack Obama for the looming debacle facing Democrats.
"I believe that people are so outraged at what Washington has done, and they hold the Democrats responsible because they're in power in all three houses, including the presidency," Koch told Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Tuesday.
Asked who's to blame on the Democratic side, Koch, a lifelong Democrat himself who served in the House of Representatives before he was elected New York's mayor in 1977, pointed out that President Obama recently took responsibility in a New York Times article by Peter Baker.
Obama said he had neglected public relations and marketing, because he was focusing so much on trying to implement the right policies.
"What he said was, while we were doing all these wonderful things, we didn't put any effort into selling them," Koch told Cavuto.
Koch said he supported the Democratic effort to reform healthcare, but objected to how the undertaking was managed.
"But why did they have to reinvent the wheel?" Koch demanded. "Couldn't they have looked at many, many of the programs that have been in existence for more than 50 years? Or taken the 32 million that had no insurance and tack them onto Medicare … It was stupid."
As for what will happen after the dust settles on Nov. 2, Koch predicted that Obama will make a Clinton-like shift to the center.
"There's no question that he'll have to move to the middle. Otherwise, nothing will be done, and there will be no chance for re-election… I believe he will come to an accommodation" with Republicans, Koch said.
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