Your Republican Party today

In a recent wide-ranging analysis of political polls, Susan Page of USA Today wrote: "The Republican Party now has a net negative rating of 9 percentage points: 42% viewed it favorably, 51% unfavorably. The Democratic Party has a net positive rating of 13 points, 55%-38%."

This is a reversal of the situation of only a few years ago, and it's a commentary on the damage George W. Bush has done to his party.

Even the Republican label can be a negative in the current climate. As pollster Scott Rasmussen puts it: "The Republican brand is a drag right now on their party's candidates."

Columnist Paul Krugman of The New York Times has an interesting take this morning on the GOP's bleak fortunes and on how none of the party's major presidential candidates seems likely to stray far from Bush's disastrous course.