We've talked a lot lately about how rough the GOP is having it of late. But in case you want to see what that looks like in the polling composite, it's as glorious as you might imagine:



In my decades of polling, I recall only one moment when a party had been driven as far from the center as the Republican Party has been today [...] I see little reason to believe that the staunch conservative bloc will wither away or splinter; it will remain a dominant force in the GOP and on the national stage. At the same time, however, I see no indication that its ideas about policy, governance and social issues will gain new adherents. They are far beyond the mainstream.

Democrats need to win the popular vote in 2014 by about seven points to take the House. So far, so good. It's early, obviously, but who doesn't like those trends? And it's not as if the GOP is doing the things it needs to do to reverse them. As legendary pollster Andrew Kohut (founder of Pew and president of Gallup when they were good) notes:The GOP's dilemma is obvious: evolve now, and risk a massive backlash among its base, rendering it unelectable for along freakin' time. Don't evolve, and remain far from the American mainstream, rendering it unelectable forever. It's a lose-lose situation, which in all truth, is everything the GOP deserves.