The political consequences of a government shutdown are bad, and they're bad for everyone. But there's good evidence that it may be far worse for Republicans than for Democrats.

New polling out this week finds that Republicans are not winning either on their strategy or on the substance of the issue.

Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to shutting down the government in an attempt to block the implementation of the health care law -- 72 percent of Americans oppose the strategy and only 22 percent support it according to a new Quinnipiac Poll.

And they are basically split when it comes to how they feel about the law in general: 45 percent support the law and 47 percent oppose it.

That's not exactly a sturdy branch for Republicans to hang an unpopular government shutdown.

Democrats, believing they have the political upper hand, are doing what they can to make the political pain stick for Republicans for as long as possible.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched a robo-call ad campaign Tuesday targeting 63 vulnerable Republicans for voting to "shut down the government" with last night's votes.

And the Democratic National Committee said that the last 24 hours of this shutdown debacle gave them the best fundraising windfall they've had all cycle.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/shutdown-...ory?id=20436746

Quote: Weird Tolkienish Figure wrote in post #3

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This was expected, the media is all-pervasive.

Fact is that the GOP didn't suffer at all last time. There was basically no fallout. Clinton was reelected, but that was because of a bad GOP candidate.

And it's even in the article:

Zitat

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But a closer look at the long term political impact of those shutdowns show that show that Gingrich's approval rating took an initial hit but returned nearly to what they were before the shutdowns, according to ABC News/Washington Post polls and Gallup polls.

And in the 2006 election, Senate Democrats lost 2 seats and Democrats gained a net of just two seats in the House.

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So at worst we'd be back where we started. And conservative media is much stronger these days.

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I think Gingrich held out for 21 days.

But he eventually caved.

Quote: Weird Tolkienish Figure wrote in post #6

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Quote: Cedric wrote in post #5

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Quote: Weird Tolkienish Figure wrote in post #3

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This was expected, the media is all-pervasive.

Fact is that the GOP didn't suffer at all last time. There was basically no fallout. Clinton was reelected, but that was because of a bad GOP candidate.

And it's even in the article:

Zitat

---

But a closer look at the long term political impact of those shutdowns show that show that Gingrich's approval rating took an initial hit but returned nearly to what they were before the shutdowns, according to ABC News/Washington Post polls and Gallup polls.

And in the 2006 election, Senate Democrats lost 2 seats and Democrats gained a net of just two seats in the House.

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So at worst we'd be back where we started. And conservative media is much stronger these days.

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I think Gingrich held out for 21 days.

But he eventually caved.

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I was in college then. Was Clinton more receptive to compromise than Obama is? Obama isn't at all receptive.

I think that's key into making anything out of this.

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At this stage (2 days), the Clintonistas and the MSM were much more viscious in their efforts to scare people and blame the GOP for the shutdown's "dire" consequences.

Also, Gingrich was horribly weak in face-to-face confrontations with Clinton, once stating, "I just melt" around Clinton.

I don't see how Mighty John Boehner could do any worse.

Here's the X factor:

Obama wanted this shutdown which begs the question(s)...why...and is there some yet unseen calamity he intends to pin on the Republicans?

Quote: Cedric wrote in post #9

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Here's the X factor:

Obama wanted this shutdown which begs the question(s)...why...and is there some yet unseen calamity he intends to pin on the Republicans?

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