Poll: People still hate the GOP, they're just really ticked at Dems too now

Interesting post from Taegan Goddard about a new PPP poll (they're the polling group that Joe likes).

A new Public Policy Polling poll found that only 19% of voters nationally are happy with the direction of the Republican Party, compared to 56% who are unhappy with it. Even GOP voters are displeased with where the party's going: Just 38% say they are unhappy with the current direction to 35% who support it.

Analysis: "This much seems clear: if the Republicans keep winning even with a heavily damaged national brand it's an indication voters are choosing much more by what they're against right now than what they're for. I think a GOP controlled Congress for next year is still unlikely but it could be the best thing that ever happened to Barack Obama's reelection hopes."

In a related piece, Politico notes that "it is indisputable that the GOP has surged, especially in the past several months" but that it is "also indisputable that the rise has little to do with the voters' view of Republicans writ large -- and that the very concerns that got them booted from power persist today."

This means all is not lost, Dems have simply screwed up, and now they need to figure out exactly what they did wrong. I worry that, to a large degree, the screw up is message based. As someone wrote last night somewhere (it's tough keeping track of what you read online), the new focus on "jobs jobs jobs" belies the fact that Democrats inherited an economy teetering on another Great Depression, and managed to walk it back. The problem wasn't that they didn't focus on jobs, the problem was that they didn't promote or defend what they actually did. Democrats think they simply need to do, not sell - their actions will succeed, and speak for themselves, because they are "good." Republicans aren't interested in success, or doing good, they simply want their actions to be perceived as "good." Democrats worry about substance, Republicans worry about PR. And unfortunately, the public can be a little gullible sometimes - they fall for PR.

Democrats shouldn't give up on substance, but they should recognize that they already focused on substance, and it bit them in the ass because they failed at the messaging, they failed at fighting back against the GOP. It's time our party learned to fight. We don't need a new direction, we need new fighters.

And in all fairness, some of the Democratic substance sucked too. The stimulus package was 1/3 the size of what the economists said we needed, and even then, the White House gave 40% away to useless tax cuts. Ditto on health care reform, which quickly veered away from what was promised and needed. So there is a substance problem as well. But both the substance and the message come off weak.