More Polling Shows Republicans Tanking, Obamacare Support Up

From a new NBC News/ WSJ poll (our emphasis):

The Republican Party has been badly damaged in the ongoing government shutdown and debt limit standoff, with a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finding that a majority of Americans blame the GOP for the shutdown, and with the party’s popularity declining to its lowest level.

By a 22-point margin (53 percent to 31 percent), the public blames the Republican Party more for the shutdown than President Barack Obama – a wider margin of blame for the GOP than the party received during the poll during the last shutdown in 1995-96.

Just 24 percent of respondents have a favorable opinion about the GOP, and only 21 percent have a favorable view of the Tea Party, which are both at all-time lows in the history of poll.

And:

Yet what is perhaps even more worrisome for the GOP is the “boomerang” effect: As the party has used the shutdown and fiscal fight to campaign against the nation’s health-care law and for limited government, the poll shows those efforts have backfired.

 For one thing, the health-care law has become more popular since the shutdown began. Thirty-eight percent see the Affordable Care Act (or “Obamacare”) as a good idea, versus 43 percent who see it as a bad idea – up from 31 percent good idea, 44 percent bad idea last month.

Can we get a "bwahahahaha!"?

Today's Cartoon - What You Get From Kissing Republicans

Obama beware!

UPDATE:  Good! Maybe Obama's not falling for the latest scam from "Mr. Tangerine Man."

(click to enlarge)

(Pat Oliphant, via gocomics.com)

Today in Crackpot Celebrities

Move over Ted "Crap Pants Fever" Nugent!  You have company:

-- Former football player and coach Mike Ditka, woulda, coulda, shoulda run against that Kenyan!  Too many hits to the head, we suspect.

-- James Woods's been on a steady diet of Fox "News" and Oxycontin Rush Limbaugh memes, apparently.  As a political handicapper, Woods history includes supporting Dumbya and Rudy "Noun, Verb, 9-11" Giuliani, so his Twitter "insights" are worth approximately doo-dah.

The Difference Between an "Epic Battle" and "Bad Governance"

Rethuglican Divide Widening

We noted yesterday that wide cracks are appearing in the Rethuglican facade over the Government shutdown and their threats to default on the debt.  As meetings between House Dems and Rethugs might signal some movement toward an endgame, the perpetrators of this extortion are beginning to duck for cover.  With Wall Street signaling that they've had enough of the pointless hostage-taking by the teabaggers, even the notorious Kochs are disavowing their role in linking the shutdown with attempts to defund the Affordable Care Act.  Oh, and the public opinion of the Rethugs?  Only 28 percent have a favorable view of the party, lowest since measuring began 21 years ago.

Now, the 2008 Rethuglican Presidential nominee and bitter dude Sen. John "Grampypants" McCain is blaming the teabagger forces for the debacle.  He and other traditional conservatives are seeing the unraveling of their party thanks to the far-right, no compromise, burn-it-down, racist birthers that make up the hardcore voting base of the Rethuglican/New Confederate Party.  It can't unravel fast enough for the sake of our democracy.

Fux's Frivolous Fixes

Fux "News" rolled out a fancy-shmancy new set for its daytime guy, Shepard Smith, complete with enormous touch screens and lots of white light.  Thankfully, it didn't escape the notice (and derision) of Jon Stewart, who noted at one point, "Hey Fox, I think you're fixing the non-broken part."  Bwahaha.
Enjoy.

When You've Lost (Cont.)...

Neo-con legacy hire wingnut John "Putz" Podhoretz, writing in Rupert "Arrrrgh" Murdoch's NY Post:

If ObamaCare had been as unpopular as conservatives believed, their plan for the shutdown — that there would be a public uprising to force Democratic senators in close races in 2014 to defund it — would’ve worked. It didn’t. Not a single senator budged.

Their tactic failed, and now what they are left with is House Speaker John Boehner basically begging the president of the United States to negotiate with him.

Right-wing PAC Heritage Action:

Michael Needham, CEO of the powerful group Heritage Action, said that he opposed conditioning a crucial vote to increase the government's borrowing authority on the group's main goal: defunding Obamacare.

 Astroturf tea bagger Matt "Kibbles" Kibbe, of FreedomWorks:

Matt Kibbe, the president and CEO of the influential conservative group FreedomWorks, also said in a Wednesday interview with The Huffington Post that the debt ceiling should be raised in order to keep the Obamacare fight focused on the continuing resolution.

It might be high time (pun intended) for someone to say "last call," take the bottle out of Mr. Tangerine Man John Boehner's shaky hand and run up the white flag.  It's unconditional surrender time boys.

(Photo:  Sideburn aficionado Kibbe)

New Fed Chair Nominee

Dr. Janet Yellin is President Obama's choice to head the Federal Reserve, a decision that is winning plaudits from Senate Dems to Wall Street.   Yellin, the first female to head the extremely powerful Federal Reserve, was the preferred choice over Lawrence Summers by the Dems in the Senate, who felt that Summers was too much a relic of he past to be effective as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Good for Yellin, a groundbreaking leader who will bring more focus to the employment side of the economic scale.

(hat tip to faithful reader P.E.C.)

Rethuggery Cartoon of the Day

(Click to enlarge)

(Stuart Carlson via GoComics.com)

Compare and Contrast

Yesterday's press conference by President Obama was a tour de force of intelligent argument, grasp of the facts, and detail.  He, once again, placed the responsibility for the shutdown and threat of default where it belongs:  on teabagger radicals in the House Republican majority who are trying to extort concessions that the voters have rejected repeatedly.  He held the floor for over an hour, and answered more than a dozen questions.

Contrast that with Weeper of the House John "Mr. Tangerine Man" Boehner's brief and demagogic appearance to claim that for the Rethuglicans to stop the extortion without concessions from the President would be "unconditional surrender."  He repeated teabagger talking points, answered one question and then bolted for the door.  That's what happens when your position is indefensible.

The public should be asking itself if this tactic by Rethugs is successful, what's next?  Demands that women give up their reproductive rights?  That we scrap immigration reform?  That Civil Rights laws be abolished?  Once the hard right sees their hostage-taking as a "success," there will be no end to their radical demands.  That's why we need to stop them cold now.

Happy Birthday Mid-Week Song

Two big favorites of ours have birthdays today:  John Lennon, who would have been 73, and our beloved Washington Bureau Chief Brian, who turns 33.  Happy Happy Birthday!

Why "Government Matters"

She's not a "natural," but you gotta love her:

Today's Cartoon

(click to enlarge)

(Jen Sorensen, via gocomics.com)

"The Most Dangerous Group in Congress"

  Josh Barro, writing in Business Insider, tells us who "the most dangerous group in Congress" is:

Our government is a disaster because of a small group of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

I'm not talking about the group of Republicans you might think.
Yes, there are 30 to 50 arch conservatives in the House who have been insistent they won't reopen the government without putting a major dent in Obamacare.  These people are not the key problem. They are only relevant because so-called "reasonable" or "realistic" Republicans allow them to be.

The most dangerous group in Congress is moderate Republicans, many from the northeast, who could reopen the government and break extremists' grip on their caucus' agenda, but choose not to.

According to the Washington Post, 21 House Republicans say they are prepared to vote for a "clean" continuing resolution to reopen the government. Together with Democrats, this is enough votes to pass the bill that has already passed the Senate, reopen the government, and stop the madness.

Yet these Republicans who publicly say they favor a clean CR have repeatedly voted with their extremist colleagues to prevent it from coming to a vote.

If moderate House Republicans don't want a government shutdown and favor a clean CR, why have they passed up on ways to end the shutdown?  [our emphasis]

To find Barro's answer to the question, go here.

BONUS:  Harold Meyerson concurs.

More Shutdown Polls

The Rethuglicans.... still losing.

From United Technologies/ National Journal:

The poll shows that 65 percent think "Congress should provide the funding to keep the government operating and deal with the health care issue separately." Just 24 percent think the House "is right to fund the continuing operations of the federal government only if Obama agrees to delay or withdraw his health care plan." [...]

 From Quinnipiac University:

In 2012, Democrats won the House national popular vote by 1.5 percent, but given the GOP's aggressive gerrymander, they need to win that national popular vote by 7-8 percent. (Crazy, huh?) That latest Quinnipiac poll has Democrats with a nine-point advantage, 43-34, and that was pre-shut down. A late July Q-poll had Dems up only four, 40-36. Given yesterday's post-shutdown polling, we could expect numbers to continue moving in the Democrats' direction.