Mitch McConnell says Republicans aren't sabotaging the economy,

but he also says his top priority is beating President Obama



Latest dKos/SEIU poll by PPP: 50% think GOP intentionally stalling economy, incl 51% of Indies, & 15% of GOPers. Details Tuesday.

Markos previews our latest poll:

The survey follows up on last week's poll showing that half of Floridians believe Republicans are purposely sabotaging the economy to defeat President Obama (just one-third disagreed). Meanwhile, Steve Benen notes another example of the sabotage argument finding its way into conventional wisdom:

The New York Times editorial board had a piece today on the importance of unemployment benefits, and made an observation in passing that stood out for me. “Tragically,” the editorial said, “the more entrenched the jobs shortage becomes, the more paralyzed Congress becomes, with Republicans committed to doing nothing in the hopes that the faltering economy will cost President Obama his job in 2012.” The point was made in passing, but it’s nevertheless striking. As far as the editorial board of the nation’s most important newspaper is concerned, it’s simply accepted as fact that congressional Republicans want to hold back the economy, on purpose, to undermine the Obama presidency.

In general, editorial boards probably aren't the best barometer for reading the public mood, but ideas don't just come out of thin air. And between the Florida poll and our latest survey, we've got pretty strong evidence that the public basically agrees with the proposition that Republicans are acting in bad faith. As Markos said, we'll have full details tomorrow, but if Americans think Republicans are purposefully causing damage to the economy in order to win an election, it will represent a major problem for the GOP, one that they can only fix by stopping their obstruction and actually getting something done.