As Krugman points out today, the only people who don't seem clued in to the Republicans express ride to oblivion are the corporate clown caucus consisting of the Senate's Blue Dog Democrats. Of course what they lack in political courage they make up for in sheer stupidity. Not to defend them in anyway, but in part I attribute it to the atmosphere of the Village, in which it is always 1993, Newt Gingrich is a visionary man of ideas, and Democrats are losers.
Someone needs to buck up these lads and show them the latest Research 2000 poll and the current standing of the Republican Party. It is a stunning portrait of a party becoming ever more marginalized throughout the country. Just a few numbers suffice to paint the picture. The Republicans have favorable ratings of 3% among Blacks (Thomas Sowell, Juan Williams, and Clarence Thomas were at Starbucks together), with 94% unfavorable. Even better, after the highly sensitive treatment of the Sotomayor nomination, 8% of Latino voters now view the GOP favorably against 86% unfavorable. Among women the favorables are a whopping 16% with 79% unfavorable. As for the voters of the future, the Republicans are viewed favorably by 9% of those between the ages of 18 and 29, and unfavorably by 87%. Regionally, the GOP is approved by 8%, 18%, and 20% of respondents in the Northeast, Midwest, and West respectively, Only in the South do they attract a respectable amount of the populace, and even there unfavorables outweigh the favorables by 47% to 45%.
Best of all, those on the right seem to have no idea how repulsive they are to people whose brains are not vestigial organs. (This linked piece by Andrew McCarthy is an excellent example of the genre -- Obama is a "man of the hard left;" "radical Islam and Radical Leftism" have "more in common that not;" and Obama is "steeped in Leftist ideology, fueled in anger and resentment over what he chooses to see in America's history.") The amazing thing is, I think McCarthy (a name he comes by honestly) is crazy enough to believe this stuff. Somehow I doubt that the vast majority of people surveyed above would see Obama in the same way.
