Gloom Spreads on Economy, but GOP Doesn't Gain

[kcshocker11]

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/108035/gloom-spreads-on-economy-but-gop-doesnt-gain

Americans are growing increasingly pessimistic about the economy after a mild upswing of attitudes in September. But Republicans haven't been able to profit politically from the economic gloom, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

n fact, disapproval of the Republican Party actually has ticked upward, along with the public's general pessimism. Asked which political party should control Congress after next year's midterm elections, Democrats now hold a clear edge over the GOP, 46% to 38%, a month after the Republicans were nearly as popular. In September, the Democratic edge was 43% to 40%.

"There was a bounce-back surge for Republicans, and that's stalled," said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster who conducted the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll with Democratic pollster Peter Hart.

"The mood in America may be blue, but attitudes toward Washington are just jet black," Mr. Hart said.

Very reflective of these tough times. People not happy with Dems but less happy with Republicans. 8)

[WuDrWu]

That probably has something to do with so many Republicans looking and acting like liberal Democrats.

Let's see what happens next Tuesday. What a poll says people generally think of groups of politicians has about as much effect on a mid term election 13 months away as what I had for dinner last night.

Also, anyone that thinks Dems are going to make gains in a midterm election when they already hold a powerful majority is seriously delusional (are you pickin' up what I'm puttin' down kc?).

Any free thinking intelligent person when presented with the facts, and not the spin, has a simple conclusion to reach (one that as of yet has eluded you kc).

[Maggie]

I think this poll has more to do with the fact that country was (understandably) fed up with the Republican Party and the frustration continues. It also demonstrates that the various assertions on this board, either directly or implied, that Conservative and GOP are one and the same is just plain silly.

What is truly interesting and relevant (I think regardless of you political leanings) is to take a look at this Gallop poll (I think someone posted it in another thread) which reveals that 40% of the American public describe themselves as conservative and only 20% as liberal (with 36% moderate) together with the poll kc linked to above.

Starting in around 2003 and continuing through President Obama’s election, there was a much-discussed theory that the Democrats had become a "movement" in their own right. Rather than the fractured band of various special interests and ideological factions that defined the party from the 1970s and 1980s, the Left was coming to identify itself as simply "Democrats." Left-wing blogs, particularly Daily Kos, were a big part of this story. Markos Moulitsas used to write that he wasn't ideological, he just wanted to win. That spirit — just win, and work out the details later — did seem to galvanize the Democrats. I believed this interpretation and I talked to any number of smart liberals who believed it too.

In any event, the Gallop poll showing that conservatives and moderates hugely outnumber liberals I think demonstrates the problem with the theory. Partisan unity, no matter how heartfelt, is going to be ephemeral once your side wins an election. Out of power, everyone wants only one thing: to get back in power. But in power, lots of people want lots of different things. It's the difference between elections and governing. This is one of the reasons why I don't think the Democratic infighting these days is necessarily a sign of weakness. Winning coalitions are, by their very nature, going to have warring factions. The inability of many journalists to understand this point — at least when it applies to conservatives or the GOP — is one of the reasons why, from the moment Republicans win an election, we're told that the Right is "cracking up."

That said, I do think one plausible theory as to why the Democratic Party is having some of its problems these days is that they misread their pre-election unity. The Democratic party's leaders are a lot more liberal than the voters (the dynamic is even more true when it comes to committee chairs who are to the left of the average Democratic congressmen).

When you take a look at both of these polls together, I think the following becomes clear: The Democrats came into power in 2008 thinking they had a huge mandate for liberalism, when they really had a huge mandate for competence (for want of a better word).

Obama and his coterie misunderstood this. They used a lot of "pragmatic" rhetoric, but they governed from the Left, starting with the calamitous stimulus bill. Obama's personal popularity is still sustaining him (around 50%), but it seems to me that the Democratic party missed an enormous opportunity. I don't think they're doomed or anything like that. But, they've managed to rebrand themselves as a very liberal party again, and that's a problem when 80% of Americans don't describe themselves as liberals. This also explains why President Obama suffered an unprecedented (at least in “modern times”) drop in the polls.