{"id":1153,"date":"2009-10-17T08:17:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-17T12:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/10\/17\/whos-the-bigger-drag-pelosi-or-the-republican-brand\/"},"modified":"2009-10-17T08:17:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-17T12:17:00","slug":"whos-the-bigger-drag-pelosi-or-the-republican-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/10\/17\/whos-the-bigger-drag-pelosi-or-the-republican-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Who’s the bigger drag? Pelosi or the Republican Brand?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, the GOP uncorked another attack on Democrat Bill Owens tying him to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Their logic is obvious: <\/p>\n

1. Pelosi leads the Democrats in the House, so electing Owens will empower Pelosi. On a lot of votes, Owens will be obligated to follow her lead. Fair enough.<\/p>\n

2. Pelosi is very unpopular. Just 37% of Americans view her positively, compared with 55% who view her negatively.<\/p>\n

But there’s a twist here, one that Republicans don’t mention. <\/p>\n

The GOP’s own House minority leader, John Boehner, is even less popular than Pelosi, clocking in at just 13%. <\/p>\n

He’s the guy who would be Dede Scozzafava’s boss, if she’s elected. <\/p>\n

According to the DailyKos poll <\/a>(paid for by a liberal group but widely respected as accurate) the GOP as a whole has unfavourability ratings of 67%.<\/p>\n

That’s 12 points worse than Pelosi’s. <\/p>\n

And those numbers are from a national survey. Here in the Northeast, I’m betting the tilt away from the GOP is even more stark. <\/p>\n

Indeed, polling last week by Siena Research Institute showed that here in the 23rd district, President Obama is still viewed favorably by 56% of voters.<\/p>\n

That group includes well over a third of Republicans.<\/p>\n

All of this matters because it highlights the dilemma for Republican Dede Scozzafava. <\/p>\n

According to Steven Greenberg, with the Siena Research Institute, her TV ads are actually turning people off.<\/p>\n

“By a margin of 28-12 percent,” he reported, “those who\u2019ve seen Scozzafava\u2019s commercials say those commercials make them less likely to support her.”<\/p>\n

With two weeks to go, Scozzafava remains the politician in this race with the highest favorable rating (37%).<\/p>\n

But her personal popularity may not be enough, given the GOP’s tarnished brand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, the GOP uncorked another attack on Democrat Bill Owens tying him to House […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[874],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153"}],"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=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}