WSJ: GOP Scores Lowest Marks In More Than 20 Years
Poll Finds GOP Blamed More for Shutdown
Republican Party Scores Lowest Marks in More Than 20 Years
Wall Street Journal, Neil King
Americans have come to hold a harshly negative view of the Republican Party during the government shutdown, giving the GOP a far larger share of the blame for a political brawl that many believe is harming the economy, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found.
The poll of 800 Americans found scant confidence that President Barack Obama and Republicans in Congress can find a way out of the morass, with nearly eight in 10 saying the country was on the wrong track—the highest number since the worst of the recession in 2008.
At a time of weak confidence in the economic recovery, the government impasse in Washington has delivered an unusually sharp blow to public faith in the elected leaders and their stewardship over the economy, the poll found.
Participants in the poll gave the Republican Party overall its lowest marks in the history of Journal polling, which goes back to 1989: More than twice as many hold a negative view of the GOP as a positive one. By contrast, the number of Americans viewing the Democratic Party positively or negatively was nearly equal, at about 40%.