Salon: The 3 biggest threats to the GOP brand (Republicans are their own worst enemy these days)

[highplainsdem]

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/03/31/gop_brand_threats

Thursday, Mar 31, 2011 15:01 ET
The 3 biggest threats to the GOP brand
When it comes to public opinion, Republicans are their own worst enemy these days
By Steve Kornacki


-snipping paragraphs about Boehner not being as unpopular as Gingrich-

This should be very good news for the GOP. When they posted their midterm landslide last fall, the biggest threat to the party's image, most observers assumed, would be a repeat of 1995, with Boehner and the House overreaching and turning off swing voters. But even though Boehner has proved a shrewder leader than Gingrich, the GOP brand is still in rough shape -- and it could soon get worse because of three factors:

1) A shutdown: House Republicans haven't officially overreached yet, but they may be in the process of doing so.

-snip-

2) The Governors: This has been a surprising source of damage to the GOP brand. Newly elected Republican governors in Wisconsin (Scott Walker), Ohio (John Kasich) and Florida (Rick Scott) have all chosen to address their states' budget issues with devout, literal adherence to the Tea Party playbook. In terms of polling, the results have been catastrophic. A poll this week put Scott's approval rating at barely over 30 percent -- and Walker and Kasich are only faring a few statistically significant points better in their states.

-snip-

3) The Tea Party itself: The movement -- which is really just a synonym for the Republican Party base -- was in some ways a source of strength for the GOP last year, in that it helped to inspire and activate previously dejected Republicans. It was also a liability, in that Tea Party activists propelled utterly unelectable candidates to GOP nominations for several important Senate and gubernatorial contests.

-snip-

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. It's too bad we weren't able to keep (all of) them from winning last year

The damage that they can do to the country between now and January 2013 is almost too awful to fathom. Some of it can be reversed, of course, if you, your friends, your children, manage to survive. I hope that by November 2012 the Republicans are so thoroughly repudiated and discredited that they lose all of their power (outside of the south, anyway- we're not talking miracles here) in Congress and in state legislatures in states run by these psychotic stepdads.