Because of posting rules I've only included as much of the article as allowed. I highly recommend reading the whole thing.
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As dark as the political picture is for President Barack Obama right now, Republicans aren't exactly basking in a healthy glow either, suggesting that some wild and unpredictable political forces have been unleashed across the land.
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Republicans can be no more confident than Democrats that they know the precise consequences, and in some respects their vulnerability on this particular front may be greater.
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So, whom do Americans blame? In a nutshell, everybody in Washington. President Obama's approval rating in the new poll drops to 44% the lowest of his term, and the approval rating of Congress drops to 13%, near a historic low. A whopping 82% disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job.
Here's the particular concern for Republicans, who now control half of that unpopular Congress: When Americans are asked whom they blame for the decision by Standard & Poor's in the wake of the debt deal to lower the federal government's credit rating, twice as many blame Republicans in Congress as blame either President Obama or Democrats in Congress. The debt downgrade was the most immediate real-world impact of the debt deal, and that played badly for the GOP.
http://online.wsj.com/article/capital_journal.html?mod=WSJ_topnav_na_us