Wrong side of polls, wrong side of history

There’s another round of disastrous polls out for the GOP. In the latest Washington Post/ABC poll, eight in 10 think the government shutdown was a terrible idea, and by a 53-29 percent margin, they blame Republicans.

And then the news gets worse. Democrats have an 8 percent edge in a generic House election in 2014, and 51 percent of Republicans believe that congressional Republicans care more about themselves than the country.

But here’s the strange part: these polls aren’t the problem.  They’re just snapshots, and there are many photo ops to come (see: Obama in Rose Garden on, uh, gltches) before 2014.

The real bad news for Republicans can be found in a different poll, one from Gallup showing that for the first time a majority of Americans favor legalizing pot. The number is up to 58 percent. This is more than mind blowing. Every age group under 65 — yeah, I’m still there — favors legalization. We may be far out in Colorado, but not very far out in front.

Meanwhile, New Jersey became the 14th state (including D.C.) to legalize gay marriage. And of course the most fascinating part of the decision was that Republican Gov. Chris Christie, a likely president candidate, chose not to appeal the court ruling, even though he had vetoed a gay marriage bill earlier. He says he still opposes gay marriage, but not enough to actually do something about it. You can do the math here: a Republican thinks the way to become president is to stay as neutral as possible on the issue. Can’t wait for the first GOP debate. Can’t wait for Colorado governor’s race.

3 COMMENTS

  1. “The real bad news for Republicans can be found in a different poll, one from Gallup showing that for the first time a majority of Americans favor legalizing pot.”

    Not really sure why Mr. Littwin considers this bad news for Republicans unless he feels Democrats hope to counter the Tea Party by becoming the Pot Party. Or unless he feels voters see marijuana legalization as the defining vote-determining issue.

    If so, The Washington Post’s Jonathan Bernstein would disagree. He says “just because most Democratic voters support legalization in polls doesn’t mean that it’s a voting issue for them.”

    Although Mr. Littwin and Mr. Bernstein have differing views on this issue keep in mind, Mr. Bernstein is a paid journalist.

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