James Antle: Republicans Partying Like It's 1994
[W. James Antle, III is associate editor of The American Spectator.]
The polls keep getting worse for the Democrats. Last week, Gallup showed the Republicans ahead by ten points -- 51 percent to 41 percent -- on the question of who registered voters would prefer to elect to Congress. This is the biggest generic ballot lead for the GOP in sixty years of polling by this venerable organization.
On most issues, voters preferred congressional Republicans to their Democratic counterparts. The only issue on which Democrats retained a statistically significant advantage was the environment. Compared to where they were in the last election, the Washington Examiner's Byron York noted, there has been "a 38-point swing on health care, a 27-point swing on the economy, a 26-point swing on handling corruption in government, a 29-point swing on combating terrorism" -- all away from the Democrats and toward the Republicans.
Then came a Washington Post/ABC News poll that showed Republicans with a 13-point lead in the generic ballot. Fully 92 percent of Americans said they believed the economy was in bad shape, with more disapproving of President Obama's handling of that issue than approving. Dissatisfaction with the workings of the federal government was at it highest level since the month before Bill Clinton denied George H.W. Bush a second term in 1992.
The same day that poll was released, the Cook Political Report projected a Republican takeover of the House. Leading prognosticator Charlie Cook's newsletter estimates that the GOP will gain at least the 40 seats it will need to regain the majority but the gains could be "very possibly substantially more."
"Happy Days Are Here Again" is a New Deal-era tune Democrats long danced to. Should Republicans start singing it?..
Read entire article at American Spectator
The polls keep getting worse for the Democrats. Last week, Gallup showed the Republicans ahead by ten points -- 51 percent to 41 percent -- on the question of who registered voters would prefer to elect to Congress. This is the biggest generic ballot lead for the GOP in sixty years of polling by this venerable organization.
On most issues, voters preferred congressional Republicans to their Democratic counterparts. The only issue on which Democrats retained a statistically significant advantage was the environment. Compared to where they were in the last election, the Washington Examiner's Byron York noted, there has been "a 38-point swing on health care, a 27-point swing on the economy, a 26-point swing on handling corruption in government, a 29-point swing on combating terrorism" -- all away from the Democrats and toward the Republicans.
Then came a Washington Post/ABC News poll that showed Republicans with a 13-point lead in the generic ballot. Fully 92 percent of Americans said they believed the economy was in bad shape, with more disapproving of President Obama's handling of that issue than approving. Dissatisfaction with the workings of the federal government was at it highest level since the month before Bill Clinton denied George H.W. Bush a second term in 1992.
The same day that poll was released, the Cook Political Report projected a Republican takeover of the House. Leading prognosticator Charlie Cook's newsletter estimates that the GOP will gain at least the 40 seats it will need to regain the majority but the gains could be "very possibly substantially more."
"Happy Days Are Here Again" is a New Deal-era tune Democrats long danced to. Should Republicans start singing it?..