A new pledge just like the old one, 2010 2010 played out like a repeat of 1994, replete with a " Pledge to America ." In fact, this pledge was such a pathetic rehashing of Newt's 1994 "Contract" that you couldn't possibly believe people would fall for it, but they did. It seemed as if the origins of the 2008 banking crisis had been erased from voters' memories and they were holding the Democrats personally responsible for the horrible economy. Once again, the Democrats had allowed the Republicans to set the narrative. Add to that a seemingly new force in politics -- the Tea Party -- which had risen to the fore by questioning Obama's birth certificate, among other crazy things, and threatened to hold Republicans accountable to religious conservative values by challenging them in the primaries. It was like some Fox comedy show from the 90s. It was hard to imagine any of this was real, but real it was, and Tea Party candidates were winning Re...