Two new polls are showing Republicans are already taking a bigger hit for a government shutdown than Barack Obama and the Democratic Party — and it’s early in this new era of a shutdown. And we haven’t even hit the debt limit crisis-to-be yet.
The most potentially devastating of the two comes from the respected Quinnipiac University. It’s worth looking at this Talking Points Memo post in detail:
Republicans in Washington insist they have simply been upholding the wishes of the American people throughout their efforts to block the Affordable Care Act, but a poll released Tuesday tells a very different story.
The first thing to note is that this has become boilerplate spin. Since Sunday I’ve been on a long car trip driving from San Diego, to Gilroy, to San Francisco to Santa Rosa. I’ve listened to news and talk almost exclusively on XM Radio. Almost all GOPers will say this is the will of the American people. The poll suggests otherwise but in 21st century American facts don’t matter. What matters to partisans is how how often you repeat a spin phrase. And repeat it in a sing-song manner, while barfing out as many talking points in a sentence as you can.
In fact, the latest survey from Quinnipiac University contains a ton of bad news for the GOP. For starters, 72 percent of Americans said they are opposed to shutting down the government in an effort to block implemntation of the health care law. A poll last week also showed a wide majority opposed to shutting down the government over Obamacare.
AND:
While Quinnipiac’s poll showed that the Affordable Care Act remains polarizing — 45 percent support it while 47 percent are opposed — 58 percent said they are opposed to Congress cutting off funding for the law. Seventy-four percent said they disapprove of congressional Republicans while only 17 percent said they approve — their lowest score ever in Quinnipiac’s polling.
Democrats in Congress came out marginally better in the poll — 32 percent approve while 60 percent disapprove — but the party may enter next year’s midterm elections with an upper-hand over the GOP.The poll showed that voters gave the nod to a generic Democrat over a generic Republican ahead of the 2014 congressional races, 43 percent to 34 percent. According to Quinnipiac, that’s the widest advantage enjoyed by Democrats on that particular question.
This is near catastrophic news for the GOP: a)to be sure, Tea Party oriented members in gerrymandered seats may be secure no matter wha,t but angry voters may decide the Republican Party is not fit to govern and vote against Republican House members in either swing district or more vulnerable districts, b)it means that not only has the Republican Party failed to rebrand but it has worsened its existing brand except among those who are Tea Party members, talk show hosts and talk show groupies, conservative activists or conservative bloggers — the same group of Republicans who were so absolutely sure on election day that Mitt Romney would be elected in a landslide.
And the worse number for the GOP yet:
As Washington enters yet another fiscal battle, the poll found more Americans backing President Obama than Republicans on Capitol Hill. Fifty-five percent said gridlock is due to the GOP’s determination to block any of Obama’s proposals, while just 33 percent blame the president’s lack of skill. Majorities said they trust Obama more than congressional Republicans on helping low income families and helping the middle class, while pluralities trust the president over the GOP on health care and the economy.
Meanwhile, a Monday morning CNN/Opinion Research poll found this:
Republicans in Congress would get more blame for a government shutdown than President Obama, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research poll.
The poll released on Monday morning shows that 46 percent of Americans say they would blame the GOP for a shutdown, while 36 percent would blame Obama and another 13 percent would blame both equally.
The poll contrasts with a Pew Research Center poll last week, which showed Republicans and Democrats getting about an equal share of the blame — 39 percent for the GOP and 36 percent for Democrats.
In the Pew poll, however, the choice was between Democrats and Republicans, rather than Obama and Republicans.
Another poll last week, from a Democratic pollster, offered all three options — the GOP, Democrats and Obama — and found Democrats (29 percent) and Obama (12) actually combined for more blame than the GOP (35).
The CNN poll also asked whether people thought each party was acting like “spoiled children” or “responsible adults.” Nearly seven in 10 (69 percent) said the congressional GOP is acting like spoiled children, while about six in 10 (58 percent) said the same of Democrats.
Interesting to watch: can the party’s more “adult” members do a Profiles in Courage and try to halt what many analysts now call in effect political hostage taking? And will Wall Street be passive or demand the House imposed threat to the economy be removed? And, if Obamacare is seriously altered under this threat, how will the Democratic Party’s base react and how in coming years will this alter the way our democracy functions?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.