Poll: Democrats Still Doomed in 2014
One of the challenges of covering politics in 2014 is that the midterms are turning out the way any smart kid with a map and calculator might have predicted. Republicans will win the House, because they're up in the polls and have gerrymandered dozens of swing seats into safe seats. Republicans will probably win the Senate because the key races are in red territory. Repeat, fly in to cover candidate, fly out, file expense report, repeat.
Still, this USA Today/Pew poll is absurdly bad for Democrats. In the two months since the last poll, a period that saw good employment numbers and more than 8 million total signups on health care exchanges, the Democrats ... have fallen behind the Republicans, 47-43. Even worse is the chart USA Today mocked up:
Not to overexplain what's in there already, but that's three times in recent years that Democrats tied or led Republicans in midterm polling and went on to lose seats. The economic picture is far, far prettier than it was in 2010, yet two-thirds of voters think the economy's lousy. The percentage of people disapproving of the ACA (55 percent) is as high as ever.