Loyal OMG readers, I must apologize for completely going off the grid for the last few weeks. See, I am on a remote island with a bunch of other supermodels— we’re doing a photo shoot for Noxzema. It’s pretty intense. That megalomaniac, Tyra Banks, is here. God, I can’t stand her. All she does all day is run around telling all the other supermodels, “You’re so ‘industry.’” I am the only one here who is real. Average girls relate to me cuz I am so real. SMIZE!” Can you imagine suffering through that all day? The good news: This is my last day on this godforsaken island.
Sadly, because I have been off the grid, I have missed many important O-happenings. Like, ahem, a certain columnist’s infatuation with the Presidential schlong. Endless updates on the public option … yes, we are still talking about that. The historic O-speech at the Human Rights Campaign, declaring Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell all but dead. I have missed the FoxNews war of words. I have missed much Republican frothing at the mouth, more Glenn Beck crying. And, hello! I missed the Nobel Peace Prize.Where’d that come from? I have missed everything!
How did you manage without my brilliance and insight into all things O-related? If I didn’t feel so sorry for myself because of my current predicament I would feel sorry for you all.
Well, here is a little gobstopper of wisdom you can suck on today while I pack up my thongs and mesh shirts and get ready to rejoin the ranks of the other brilliant nerds at PubliCola. Do you remember over the summer when health care town halls were turning into the Thunderdome? One Democrat enters, no Democrats leave? It turned all of us lefty, NPR-listening, latte sippin liberals into Henny Pennies, didn’t it? We’re going to lose the midterms! Obama’s in trouble! Help, the teabaggers are gaining ground! Things were pretty down and we are all freaked.
Except for one thing we forgot to consider—the Republican Party itself. People still don’t like Republicans.
Nate Silver, who is a savior for Henny Pennies like me, has a great little writeup about the Republicans’ branding issue. He writes that the NY-23 race, where the moderate Republican dropped out of the race because the Rush Limbaugh-endorsed “conservative” candidate was too popular, is exactly why the Republican brand stinks right now. The tag “Conservative” does well, as well as it ever has in this country, while “Republican” is doing, well, not so well.
In fact, the Rasmussen Poll reports that for the third straight month, more people are identifying themselves as Democrats, than with Republicans. More to the point, a recent WSJ/NBC poll shows that the Republican party has a 25% approval rating, compared to 47% for Democrats.
And while I still worry that Democrats won’t pass a public option or climate change bill, thereby depressing Democratic turnout in 2010, thereby creating the real possibility of a 1994 replay, the Republicans are in a bit of a civil war for identity and unity around their party brand. I take comfort in the small things.
