A plurality of Americans — 46 percent — now approve of the congressional Democrats, compared to 45 percent who disapprove. Congressional Republicans lag far behind, with a dismal 17-68 favorable/unfavorable rating.
For all the GOP talk of “unity” and having “won the stimulus debate,” the fact is, the American people don’t like them or their do-nothing obstructionist agenda. [...]
Over the weekend, the GOP’s de facto leader, Rush Limbaugh, rallied his CPAC audience in a 90-minute speech televised nationally by Fox News and CNN. “One thing we can all do is stop assuming that the way to beat them is with better policy ideas,” he thundered to great applause, adding that, “To us, bipartisanship is [Democrats] being forced to agree with us after we have politically cleaned their clocks and beaten them.”
Given that the public is certainly demanding “better policy ideas” than what the GOP delivered the last decade, and given the current polling numbers, the GOP won’t be cleaning any clocks anytime soon. Meanwhile, Obama and his congressional allies have promised to withdraw completely from Iraq by 2011, provide universal healthcare and continue to use government as an instrument for vigorous economic recovery.