Well, what's interesting is that all the publicity that Limbaugh and Coulter are receiving has been really bad for the GOP. While the GOP has take the attitude of self-congratulations, the America of today really doesn't like the right wing extremists, as evidenced by the incredible margins the Dems got in the recent elections in Congress, plus Obama getting elected.
What's even worse is that the GOP thinks they won some kind of moral victory with their unanimous voting of no to the recovery package. But the polls tell a different story. According to the latest NBC & WSJ poll, Obama is now at the highest approval rating he's every had, 68%. That's higher than before the stimulus debate. Americans saw the GOP stance as the stance of getting in the way of an economic recovery and of continuing the partisan bickering, while Obama and the Dems were trying to help Americans. Right or wrong, that's what the polls tell us.
Conversely, the GOP is now at the lowest approval rating they've ever had, at 26%. In addition, most of the people polled, some 80%+, said they blame Bush for the bad economy and that they'll give Obama a year before they will say he owns the results of the economy.
So by all measures, the GOP is not doing well and the public is getting alienated from them. I don't think having representatives like Steele, Jindal, Palin, Limbaugh, and Coulter is working for them at all. I'll tell you that prior to voting for Kerry and Obama, I voted straight ticket Republican for my entire life prior to that. Center-right and Independent Americans like me simply can't stand extremism of any kind, whether it comes from the left or the right. And we represent 1/3 of the voters out there. |
