A premature celebration for the GOP

[WilliamPitt]

Morning Fix: A premature celebration for the GOP

Republicans in Washington can barely contain their glee at the turn of President Obama's political fortunes in the first nine months of the year but a new Washington Post/ABC News poll suggests the GOP still faces serious perception problems in the eyes of the American public. Less than one in five voters (19 percent) expressed confidence in Republicans' ability to make the right decisions for America's future while a whopping 79 percent lacked that confidence.

Among independent voters, who went heavily for Obama in 2008 and congressional Democrats in 2006, the numbers for Republicans on the confidence questions were even more worse. Just 17 percent of independents expressed confidence in Republicans' ability to make the right decision while 83 percent said they did not have that confidence. (While Obama's numbers on the confidence question weren't amazing -- 49 percent confident/50 percent not confident -- they were far stronger than those for Republicans.)

On the generic ballot question, 51 percent of the sample said they would cast a vote for a Democratic candidate in their congressional district next fall while just 39 percent said they would opt for a GOP candidate. (As late as this summer, Republicans had seemingly narrowed the wide generic ballot lead Democrats enjoyed for much of the last two election cycles.) And, perhaps most troubling for GOP hopes is the fact that just 20 percent of the Post sample identified themselves as Republicans, the lowest that number has been in Post polling since 1983. (No, that is not a typo.)

These numbers, coming roughly one year before the 2010 midterm elections, show that any celebration on the GOP's behalf is premature as the party has yet to convince most voters that it can be a viable alternative to Democratic control in Washington today.

More: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/morning-fix-beating-something.html?hpid=topnews

[tridim]

1. Their Faux (news) reality is finally biting them in the ass. nt

[mimitabby]

5. yes!

[WI_DEM]

2. Heck a 57% approval rating for Obama is damn good. Junior Bush's was artificially high at this

point because of his cashing in on the 9/11 tragedy. Obama's rating at this point is better than Bill Clinton's--who went on to win re-election. Jimmy Carter had an approval rating in the 60's at this time, but he lost in 1980.

[get the red out]

7. My thought as well

What is the drastic turn in the President's political fortunes? No President keeps extremely high numbers the minute he starts actually trying to do something.

[NewJeffCT]

30. And, what was *'s approval right before 9/11?

I believe he was already in the 40s before that, no?

[LeftHander]

3. The GOP is a dead horse. All that is left now is the requisite beating.

Where is my whip?

Most of the public now knows about the smoke and mirror campaign waged by the insurance companies against Healthcare Reform that alone has done a lot of damage to any shred of remaining credibility. People are pissed they were duped again.

It is going to be a crushing mid-term election for GOP...

[LuvNewcastle]

4. I saw some numbers on the news that said

only 48% or 49% were in favor of health care, but 57% want a public option. Seems Americans aren't sure what they want, they just know they don't want the Republicans.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Damned proud to give you rec #5!

Marriage must agree with you...;)

[grytpype]

8. Why are they gleeful?

Obama has won every fight and has a 57% approval rating.

Their approval and party ID is 20%. Ross Perot got more support than that.

They still think they can change reality with their minds, they are mentally ill.

[Ishoutandscream2]

10. Mentally ill, and very, very stupid

They are the party of anti-intellectuals, and damned proud of it.

[damntexdem]

9. Hey, premature is almost the only kind of celebration they get nowadays. The only exception is the:

immature celebration.

;-)

[AusDem]

27. haha, i was comment trolling a while back on fox

and this golden nugget of a comment was there in response to the WH fox hunt.

"Obama ACORN Hussein and his whitehouse are so immature in trying to fight with Fox......."

and went on to say that he's finished, everyone listens to Fox, he's evil, etc etc.

I may have paraphrased and actually made it slightly more readable by accident, but you understand the calibre of people out there, and irony is just something they can't seem to understand.

[LiberalLovinLug]

11. So one question

How the F%#* does FAUX News always win the ratings wars, and by such a large margin?

This is the network that unabashedly slams every Democrat, and worships every Republican.

[WilliamPitt]

15. "How the F%#* does FAUX News always win the ratings wars, and by such a large margin?"

Cuz there's a certain subset of the populace who always stays home and watches the same channel.

(Xtian hausfraus)

...who are also always home to answer polls.

Fish. Barrel. Boom.

[MellowDem]

23. It has little to do with religion...

it's that the elderly are the most conservative portion of the population and also have the most time to watch TV and are usually also amongst those most politically aware.

[RagAss]

24. ....and most of them are racist and white..

[MellowDem]

26. Racism has little to do with it...

bigotry some, ignorance and fear based on that ignorance much much more. While most of the elderly are indeed white, I think it's quite an assumption to say most are racist. Many are a product of their time. My grandparents never knew any of their peers who were gay like my generation does, or else I'm sure they would see things differently. And they certainly didn't experience as much diversity growing up. Their experiences generally lead them to a conservative point of view, and their experiences don't often change as they get older, in fact, getting older just makes it worse I think, as people go into homogonous retirement homes or communities and are surrounded mostly people of their own age and race. Their views aren't challenged or debated.

But there are those elderly people who are quite liberal, though you'll probably find their experiences tend to differ.

[Kajsa]

36. You nailed it, MellowDem!

The fear factor plays a huge role in their outlook on life.

And yes, it is based on ignorance of the subject.

:thumbsup:

[RagAss]

37. It's still racism...even if they don't know it.

[Kajsa]

35. In the case of my Repub. family members

who do watch that garbage, :puke:

they are white, elderly and VERY fearful.

The Faux crew controls their audience
with FEAR mongering.

It works very well with elderly people.

:(

[Scruffy1]

28. Nice explanation

I love your Fish.Barrel.Boom. I've never been polled in my life, but I have worked phones some in my life and can say that you get a skewed sample by phone, old people definitely easier to reach. I would think that Fox provides a comfort level for Republicans and low information people, and I don't think the rest of the News channels are that much better. Being a socialist I don't think the media has much interest in giving "both sides" but rather two versions of the same side. The Republican Party has been dying for many years and has had to rely on fear, lies and fraud to get votes, but that doesn't mean that the Big Money interests are out of power. They just move over to the democrats to get what they want. I would love to see a new Party, but no one been able to have any success so far in my lifetime, so we seem to be stuck prodding the old corporate donkey along.

[MellowDem]

22. Just look at the election...

what was the greatest indicator of how you would vote? Age. And who has the time to watch lots of TV and be politically involved? Retired old people. So there you have it. Fox's audience is very old and has lots of time on their hands.

[leftynyc]

31. The average age for their viewers

is 67. They haven't figured out the remote yet.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

32. Because the non GOP dead enders split viewership among different channels.

Even though they are a substantial majority over GOP dead enders, as elections since 2006 show.

GOP dead enders have only Fox which has no real competition for the knuckle dragging demographic.

[tanyev]

12. Premature joculation, eh?

Figures.

[proud patriot]

13. I still think the Republican party is going extinct

:-)

[Marr]

25. They haven't done anything about the rift that killed them in the last national election.

The rift between the evangelicals and the big money interests is just as deep and wide as ever. If anything, it's gotten worse.

[emulatorloo]

14. This is the impression I have -- People just don't trust the party of NO IDEAS n/t

[vinylsolution]

16. Proof that the vast majority of Americans....

... want real change and progress, rather than a party that lines its own pockets and tramples working people.

Onward! :kick:

[ThoughtCriminal]

17. There is a price for GOP strategy

They can occasionally knock a few points off President Obama's popularity for a short term, but only at the price of losing many more points in their own long-term approval.

They seem to think it is worth it.

[Cleita]

18. Does that head in the sand thing work for them still?

Most sane Republicans have become independents or even Blue Dog democrats. Only the loonies are left in their party. And like you said, there are only between 20 and 30 percent of them left.

[donheld]

19. k & R

[gratuitous]

20. You see it in football all the time

Some practice all-american defensive back comes running down the field, and really sticks the return guy on the opening kick-off. He jumps and fist pumps, whoops and hollers almost as if he just did something.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

33. The best is when some DB does this after a routine tackle, and his team is down 3 touchdowns.

That's the way I see the GOP's reaction to the last 6 months or so.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

21. Yeah

I'd say that they've been a tad premature on their assessments of.....well.... the public's assessment of THEM in relation to President Obama and the Democrats in Congress. So far, 2010 is NOT looking at all like 1994 (much to their depression I'm sure). They really DO like to live in the past, don't they? I bet that they're pining away in their mansions every day for the "good old days" cracking "Billary" jokes and being able to launch hostile investigations and impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton on BJ charges. It's looking more and more like they won't be able to "kneecap" him like they did Clinton. At this point, it looks like they'll be lucky to hold it together as a party. Ah well.......too bad for them. I won't be shedding any tears for them after everything they've done during the past 14 years.

[sellitman]

29. The Truth is Out! (Sorry about that pun)

:toast:

[Stellar]

34. The GOP has villainized everybody in the country

except old white men still living in the past, and some countries around the world. Who would want to vote for them? Only those people that think Palin would be a great president or VP.