The polling doesn’t tell us everything, but it is clear that Republicans are doing better this time than they did in the 90s. although that’s a low bar to clear.
I’m surprised you’re finding a silver lining in this, considering how strongly you seemed to oppose what they’re doing/threatening in another thread (albeit on the debt limit, not on the shutdown). Have you changed your mind?
Not at all. The fact that I think it’s not a legitimate tactic is totally seperate from whether or not it will work. In fact, me thinking it’s a bad idea should be enough to convince you that maybe they’ll win this fight.
According to this poll, the Republicans are doing worse than they did in the 90s.
That’s approval rating. For whatever reason, probably Obama’s relative unpopularity compared to Bill Clinton, the Republicans aren’t getting hurt as badly.
Of course, they only lost 7 seats in the 1996 House election, so maybe the cost of the shutdown back then was overrated too.
By the measure of approval rating, and some (but not all) of the blame-for-the-shutdown polls, the Republicans are, in fact, doing worse than they did in the 90s shutdown.
Okay, so I was right. It was a bad idea.
So, not only are the favorability ratings of the Republicans cratering (lowest in poll history), not only do people blame them, not only would people prefer a Democratically controlled House next year, and not only are Obama’s numbers improving…
But Obamacare is more popular now than before this stunt, and 50% of the country thinks that rather than cut funding for it, we should endure the Republicans tantrum/shutdown.
This is just an incredibly stupid move from an incredibly stupid party, and it has hurt them severely.
I would attribute that more to the exchanges now being open, and people actually “finding out what’s in it” despite the stream of lies from its obstructionists, as Pelosi predicted would happen. Remember implementation started the same day.
I’m even more impressed by the overall approval rating for Congress (not with a mention of party) being down to 5%. Yes, a single digit.
Not so sure that the computer glitches would not have had more negative impact if not for the House antics burying that as a lede.
I don’t disagree. However, I do think that it helps psychologically to have people feel even better about Obamacare when their greater appreciation for the actual contents is accompanied by an attack of it that is associated with something they really hate (the shutdown).
The Republicans really could not have handled all this any more poorly than they have. Remember, it was just a few years ago that people were still calling them, with a straight face, the party of big ideas.
Well, some people. I, personally, would have seriously injured myself attempting that kind of stunt. Don’t try this at home, kids!
The President can still save them by caving.
True. Of course he won’t cave. But he will offer them some minimal face-saving as their way out.
I’m not so sure of that. I guess it depends on what we define as caving. If he gives them another trillion in spending cuts for basically nothing but an agreement to not screw around for a year, that’s caving and rewarding bad behavior to boot.
He won’t if for no other reason because he can’t.
He will keep healthcare off the table. Period. So Medicare is out of the equation.
Military cuts? Like they’d even ask for it. Science budget? Too committed to investing in the future.
It leaves Social Security. And let’s face it, raising the age a year or so and some modest means testing just does not make a big dollar impact on the budget. Chump change but he’ll consent to some movement there which of course hurts the GOP in the polls more than the Democrats even as they spin it that they forced him to do something.
And he’ll give them Keystone. Honestly he might even want to do that but didn’t previously want to piss off elements of his own core. The less the world relies on Arab and Russian oil and natural gas the better so far as our international interests go. (Environmental arguments being duly noted and acknowledged.)
And he’ll do that only after they have approved both a CR and the debt ceiling on a short term basis. And after some bargaining for show. That is face saving for enough for Boehner albeit barely yet will in no way be able to be spun as caving. It will hit the balance of firm but not rigid.
But if Republicans get anything out of this, then they’ll keep on doing it. And I’m saying that as someone who would really like them to stop.
If he gets bolder, and addresses the seriously-regressive nature of the SS tax, he’d probably get a lot more public support. Raising or eliminating the cap and progressivizing the rates is not only fiscally sound in both the short and long terms, it’s basic fairness.
Yes, but hopefully with some very serious environmental safeguards.
I like the idea of giving him and his caucus “I shut down the government and all I got was this lousy T-shirt” garments, so they can say they “won” something.
Boehner’s the only one who can end this- even if Obama were to cave, Boehner would still have to call a vote. It’s all on Boehner- both the shutdown and the default. He could call a vote now and end it, but he won’t. It’s not really about Obama at all.