Republican support in 'jaw-dropping' free fall

[ProSense]

Republican support in 'jaw-dropping' free fall

By Steve Benen

Professional pollsters for major news organizations are notoriously cautious people who avoid hyperbole. So when Democratic pollster Peter Hart and Republican Bill McInturff conducted the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll and described the results as "jaw-dropping," it's worth appreciating why.



Let's put it this way: if this poll were a campfire story, it'd leave Republicans shaking uncontrollably in their sleeping bags. The GOP wasn't in especially good shape before, but the shutdown crisis and the threats to crash the economy on purpose have been an unmitigated disaster for the party, causing the sort of collapse in public support pollsters simply don't see very often.

What's the good news for Republicans in the poll? There is no good news.

* Approval ratings: While President Obama's approval rating improved after GOP lawmakers shut down the government, Republican support has collapsed. In the new poll, 70% of Americans disapprove of the way in which GOP lawmakers are doing their jobs. Republicans have reached a level of unpopularity unseen in the history of the poll.

* Shutdown: Asked who bears responsibility for the shutdown, a 53% majority blame congressional Republicans. Less than a third (31%) blame the president.

* "Obamacare": Despite the difficulties the Affordable Care Act has encountered since the open-enrollment period began, support for the law has increased.

* Generic ballot: Democrats enjoy an eight-point advantage in the congressional midterm elections (47% to 39%), as compared to a three-point advantage last month (46% to 43%).

* Government activism: By a 52% to 44% margin, Americans believe the government should do more, not less, to solve problems. In June, the results were evenly split.

* Patriotism: A 70% majority believe congressional Republicans are "putting their own political agenda ahead of what is good for the country."

Republican pollster Bill McInturff added, "These numbers lead to one inescapable conclusion: The Republicans are not tone deaf; they are stone deaf."

- more -

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/10/11/20919733-republican-support-in-jaw-dropping-free-fall

Gallup: Cruz’s favorability rating plunges
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023823685

[DonViejo]

1. "What's the good news for Republicans in the poll?...

There is no good news."

[tosh]

2. ...

[tridim]

3. Since they apparently don't want to do their jobs...

I'd say this poll is pretty good news for them since it suggests an inevitable mass-firing in 2014.

[ffr]

6. Whoot!

If we can keep people fixed in what they are feeling and believing today, yes. It's hard to keep low information types focused.

We can only hope.

[tclambert]

15. "For it is the doom of men that they forget."

Merlin in the movie "Excalibur." (One of my favorites."

[calimary]

8. How it SHOULD be.

MUCH deserved and well earned, if you ask me!

[ProSense]

13. Republicans are lost. n/t

[Salviati]

23. The good news is that unfavorables have a hard cap of 100%

So their disapproval numbers cannot continue to drop at this rate for much longer. Because math.

[cer7711]

4. Never Interrupt the Enemy When He's In the Midst of Making a Mistake

Now THIS is the feel-good story of the morning.

The Republican party is fast going the way of the Whigs . . .

Keep the pressure on, Mr. President! Grind them into oblivion. The neo-Confederate, so-called "Tea Party" elements within the Republican party proper brought on this crisis by their sneering, hysterical idiocy; let them drain this bitter cup of their own devising to the last dregs . . .

[hue]

5. "Give them enough rope & they'll hang themselves." :-)

[L0oniX]

7. Snowden is a hero!

[Left Coast2020]

9. Repukes could lose 30 seats in 2014????

I just got this e-mail from DFA. I find this number of seats the GOP taliban could lose astonishing. But it would be very nice if it is accurate or within the margins. Can we say hello to Speaker Nancy Pelosi yet?



3,083,897.

Outraged by the government shutdown, that's how many phone calls DFA members have pledged to make to voters in 2014 to defeat Republicans and take back the House of Representatives from Tea Party extremists. And the number is surging with each day the shutdown continues.

217,324.

That's how many DFA and Daily Kos supporters have signed on to a petition asking 21 moderate House Republicans to buck John Boehner and sign a "discharge petition" that would force a vote to end the shutdown -- and could prevent the impending debt ceiling disaster.

30.

That's how many Republicans could lose their seats because of the shutdown, according to Sam Wang, a Princeton professor called "one of the best poll aggregators out there" by Paul Krugman. Wang's analysis of recent polling shows that the GOP would lose the House "if the election were held today."

We can take back the House in 2014 -- so this never happens again. Please contribute $5 today to our DFA Dialer program so our members can follow through on making 3 million calls into the districts that matter the most.

Republicans made this mess, gambling on our future to force an ideological point that the majority of Americans continue to reject. Let's make sure they learn a lesson.

Thanks for all you do,

[kentauros]

10. Reagan and company wanted a stupid population.

What they seemed to miss was that a stupid population begets stupid elected representatives.

So, how is damage-control going on hatewing radio these days

[nxylas]

11. Baghdad Rush is hailing it as a great Republican victory

Business as usual, in other words.

[kentauros]

12. I have to wonder how many of his regular listeners

are either laughing at him, or calling in, incensed that he's still supporting them

[nxylas]

21. I wonder too

I know the Tea Party cult excels at creating its own reality, but eventually there must come a point at which the disconnect with their own experience becomes so great that even Dittoheads start to ask "Who am I going to believe, Rush or my lying eyes?"

[tclambert]

14. Now recruit solid Dem candidates for every Congressional district.

Take the House in 2014. We need to swing 17 seats. We need 6 seats in the Senate to end the Republican filibuster threats. Then the nation can do what California did.

[Snake Plissken]

16. There just isn't enough mentally unstable angry old White men to sustain them any longer

They have alienated every other possible demographic

[Scurrilous]

17. K & R

[MADem]

18. NBC is corporatist and WSJ is Murdoch-owned, so they certainly aren't padding those numbers to our

benefit~~!!!!

[Cha]

19. Here's to Stone cold deaf republicons.. always have been ..just

finally catching up with them. I hope!

[arely staircase]

20. lemmings with suicide vests nt

[Phlem]

22. This I will gladly rec!

K&R

-p

[blue-wave]

24. It's Only Forward From Here

to a dem majority in BOTH houses of congress in 2014 and another winning, historic dem national ticket in 2016....Clinton/Warren!!!

[struggle4progress]

25. Wow! Generic Democrats are twice as popular as generic Tea-Pots

Gotta guess a lotta folk think the Tea-Pots are cracked

[Warren DeMontague]

26. "Republicans have reached a level of unpopularity unseen in the history of the poll."

Gee, couldn't happen to a nicer bunch.

[Left Coast2020]

27. TURNOUT, TURNOUT, TURNOUT!

And if we get to say Governor Wendy Davis in Texas, its all over but the shouting for repukes. R's are apparently scared they will lose their gold nugget in the "Lone-Star state".

Getting Texas would be big for us.

Then maybe, just maybe, (Louie) gomer pyle would be irrevalant. Can't stand listening to that sick little twerp.

[Laelth]

28. k&r for the truth. n/t

-Laelth

[Bill USA]

29. Couldn't have happened to more deserving degenerate conmen

[ProSense]

30. Kick! n/t

[ProSense]

31. Kick! n/t