{"id":1126,"date":"2009-10-08T13:52:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-08T17:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/10\/08\/after-the-gops-boisterous-summer-revival-or-spiral\/"},"modified":"2009-10-08T13:52:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-08T17:52:00","slug":"after-the-gops-boisterous-summer-revival-or-spiral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/10\/08\/after-the-gops-boisterous-summer-revival-or-spiral\/","title":{"rendered":"After the GOP’s boisterous summer, revival or spiral?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Republican Party has had a lively summer. And they needed to show some signs of life.<\/p>\n

What’s unclear is whether or not it’s been a good enough season — the start of a fresh start or a noisy sort of drift.<\/p>\n

I was startled this afternoon to see this summary of polls at Pollster.com<\/a>, which shows the number of Americans who describe themselves as Republicans continuing to slip steadily downward.<\/p>\n

Pew puts the GOP’s party-ID currently at 23%. That’s bleak.<\/p>\n

Democrats have also slid a little, but they’re still at 33%. A big gap.<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama’s approval ratings<\/a> are nowhere near his honeymoon period highs, but he seems to have stabilized about six weeks ago at about 51-53%. <\/p>\n

As Jonathan noted earlier, Congressional Quarterly, is now predicting that Democrats will gain at least a couple of House seats in the 2010 mid-terms.<\/p>\n

Republicans, according to CQ<\/a>, could also be playing defense in the US Senate.<\/p>\n

CQ Politics rates two seats now held by Democrats and seven held by Republicans as “Tossups”, or No Clear Favorite.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A lot can happen between now and November 2010. Healthcare reform could pass, or hit the wall.<\/p>\n

The economy could keep stuttering upward; or suffer a painful relapse.<\/p>\n

But so far, I’m finding it difficult to connect the dots between the GOP’s town hall summer and a new, vote-rich cycle for Republican candidates.<\/p>\n

One danger for Republicans could be the conservative echo chamber. Yes, a lot of people have turned up for marches and rallies. And Fox News has sky-high ratings. <\/p>\n

But what if those enthusiastic supporters represent a limited (even dwindling?) base, as that party ID number might suggest?<\/p>\n

Only about three million people watch Fox News regularly. That’s brilliant for cable TV, but it’s only about 1-2% of the national population.<\/p>\n

If the voter appeal doesn’t extend much beyond those rural and exurban white strongholds, a GOP revival will be tough. <\/p>\n

(Or it might sort of resemble the current economy: a slight uptick to a fairly bleak plateau.)<\/p>\n

These questions are at the heart of the NY-23 race. The special election matters because everyone’s looking to gauge just how the climate and mood of the country will play out at the ballot box.<\/p>\n

So what do you think? Are you ready to come home to the GOP? If so, what’s won you over or kept you loyal? <\/p>\n

If not, what kind of message could the Republican Party add to their platform that would appeal to you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Republican Party has had a lively summer. And they needed to show some signs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}