Why Republicans should be very, very afraid - Walter Shapiro

[Bill USA]

http://news.yahoo.com/why-republicans-should-be-very--very-afraid-192943188.html

~~
~~

A Thursday NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll found the GOP’s approval rating down to (gulp) 24 percent. This came on the heels of an Associated Press/GfK poll that revealed the thumbs-up verdict on Congress (5 percent) is only slightly higher than the survey’s margin of error (3.4 percentage points). Small wonder that the liberal New Republic headlined a Friday article, “The Last Days of the GOP.”

~~
~~

What this suggests is that the after-effects from the government shutdown and the debt ceiling dance of doom are apt to become the dominant voting issues of 2014. That is why, despite the down-with-all-incumbents mood among the voters, Republicans are disproportionately at risk. Voters are accurately blaming the Republicans for the government shutdown — and that stigma will be hard to escape.

It is telling, in the NBC/WSJ poll, that 65 percent of voters think the government shutdown is hurting the economy and 63 percent describe a failure to approve a debt ceiling bill as “a serious problem.” These are memories that are not going to be erased with a handshake deal at the White House and the reopening of the national parks.

~~
~~

So it was when the House Republicans shut down the government confident that they could win major concessions from the White House in a few days. Now they are hunkered down in the trenches, with public opinion turning against them, desperate for any rationale to abandon the battlefield. But they cannot simply surrender because … well … that would mean that they have been bleeding in the polls for nothing. Rarely has a political party lost so much so rapidly from a series of strategic blunders. So, for a change, I believe the hype. Republicans will need a long time to recover from their biggest Capitol Hill debacle in memory.

[Turbineguy]

1. The more the rebubs dance around with this

the greater the damage. Giving up now and looking for common ground afterwards, gives them a year to try and repair the damage.

[litlbilly]

6. This reminds me of

the "be careful what you wish for" scenario. The Koch's and all their big money people wanted this, they bought it, they own it. Now, they can't control it. Just like a Frankenstein monster only worse. If we make it through this, I just hope they see the light. If not, lets hope they lose 3/4Th's of their holdings overnight. They know that's a possibility and they are starting to panic. The only good that can come of this is, all these Citizen United lovers get what they think they want. We can only hope. I just wish we had more true progressives in congress to help pick up the pieces. It's gonna get ugly.

[BeyondGeography]

2. Bizarre they are going for broke against a newly re-elected President

Voters will get first crack at them. Meantime, Obama, who received 65 million votes, has about 3.5 years to go with mostly his legacy to worry about. Did they expect him to spend that time undermining himself after beating them convincingly? And, after losing seats in both houses and the White House, where is the leverage to do that? Logic doesn't apply, I know...

[freshwest]

3. 24% of Americans holding the other 76% hostage. The 'Supermen' are ecstatic.

They'd love to fire their AR-15 and see plenty of blood. They're serial killer groupies, just their goddess Ayn Rand. Sick bastids.

[alterfurz]

4. couldn't happen to a nicer crew...

[freshwest]

5. Wow, excellent graphic. *steals* n/t

[SunSeeker]

7. Perfect. nt

[Brigid]

8. Most excellent.