Three key Democrats drop out of 2010 race

The Democrats got more bad news today when Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Gov. Bill Ritter of Colorado announced they were not running for reelection. Yesterday, Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota also said he would not seek a new term in 2010.

Some news agencies have wrongly reported this as a loss of a Democratic majority in the Senate, but that's not a sure thing yet. Democratic candidates can still win in both Connecticut and North Dakota although both states will be tough especially North Dakota.

We will have to wait and see how the public reacts to a new healthcare reform bill and other legislation that the Democrats may pass before election time. Definitely there is a lot of pressure on President Barack Obama, the leader of the party.

Th real challenge is motivating those grassroots supporters that were so fired up during the Obama election campaign. Those supporters are very largely progressive people although not all of course, and they tend to be difficult to inspire with pragmatic politics. The more change that occurs the easier it will be to argue that Obama and the Democrats are worth the effort of getting back to work for 2010.