From the pollsters at PPP, discussing their latest Ohio polling:
52% of the undecideds in the Senate race disapprove of President Obama to 35% who like the job he's doing. They don't think much of the Democrats in Congress either- only 26% have a like the job they're doing.
Those numbers might seem bad- but they pale in comparison to how negatively those voters feel about Congressional Republicans- only 10% approve of the job they're doing while 61% disapprove. So these voters are down on President Obama and the Democratic majority- but their most negatives feelings are toward the Republican minority.
These are folks who normally would vote to 'throw the bums out.' But they think the alternative is even bigger bums. It'll be interesting to see how folks like this across the country end up voting this fall- and it could determine whether Democrats keep control of the House and a healthy majority in the Senate or not.
By all rights, Democrats should get crushed in November. They took office promising change, and their actions have been, at best, weak tea. Hostile corporatist interests have successfully watered down every bit of legislation passed. The job picture is dismal, with zero apparent urgency in DC to do something about it. Democrats have actually convinced themselves that voters care more about deficits than they do about job creation. We're still myred in unwinnable wars. And remember, this was all with super majorities in both chambers of Congress.
So yeah, there's plenty of motivation to punish Democrats for their ineffectiveness and timidity in the face of dramatic challenges.
But Republicans, as effective as they've been in blocking much of the change Democrats could've delivered, have utterly failed in presenting an alternative. And in that vacuum, voters can only assume the GOP agenda is exactly what they delivered in the eight years of the Bush Administration.
So one party is hated, the other one is seen as ineffective. What's a voter to do? We'll see, but it's clear as this cycle has shaped up, that the biggest impediment to massive Republican gains this November is the GOP itself.
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