Dan Balz writing in the Washington Post sums up what we all have been seeing and saying:
Though the president’s personal numbers remain soft, public opinion on a resolution to the debt and deficit problem continues to side with him. A strong majority believes that the solution should include spending cuts and tax increases. Many more Americans see Republicans as the bigger obstacle to a compromise.
That has not helped sway the House Republicans. In the normal course of politics, a party on the wrong side of public opinion begins to correct its course. In this case, House Republicans are paying attention not to the public at large but to the views of the tea party activists who helped propel them to power last fall. They could pay a steep price for that if the public concludes they were responsible for putting the government in default or for further damaging the economy.
We looked at some of those numbers yesterday (
Gallup: Obama has modestly higher approval on debt, Boehner losing moderates) and what we've seen in the last 24 hours is this:
• a weak Speaker has lost control of his caucus, and has lost both credibility and leverage
• even if a resurrected bill passes the House today, that does not change the above
• no final bill will pass without Democrats in the House
• tea party Republicans have proven themselves unable to govern
• the GOP is responsible for pushing the government to default and further damage to the economy. If that doesn't happen, it's because of Democrats.
Run on that, Republicans. You deserve to answer to the public.
[UPDATE]: More CW from the NY Times:
No matter the outcome of the effort by the House speaker, John A. Boehner, to jam his debt ceiling bill through the House over the opposition of a band of freshmen and other conservatives, it is increasingly clear that the same political insurgency that put Republicans into power also has the potential to leave the party so divided that it struggles to govern.