Unfortunately for them, most of the party's base (now controlled by teabaggers and fundamentalists) don't want to do that. They want the party to move even further to the right, and many in Congress are following the wishes of the base -- not their party leaders. These congressional Republicans think they can appeal to more voters by sticking with their radical positions -- and instead, trying to smear the Democrats. And that is why they've been screaming loudly about White House "scandals" the last few weeks.
The question now is whether this attempt to smear Democrats (and the president) is working or not. A new CNN/ORC Poll would tend to indicate that it is not working. If anything, the Republicans are losing support -- not gaining support. The poll was done on May 17th and 18th of 923 adult Americans, and has a margin of error of 3 points. Here are the poll numbers:
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORABLE OR UNFAVORABLE OPINION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY?
favorable...............35%
unfavorable...............59%
Here is the demographic breakdown (with the percentage shown being those with a favorable opinion):
Men...............36%
Women...............35%
Whites...............43%
Non-whites...............18%
18 to 34...............27%
35 to 49...............41%
50 to 64...............33%
65 & over...............45%
Under $50k...............31%
Over $50k...............38%
No college...............33%
Attended college...............37%
Liberal...............16%
Moderate...............26%
Conservative...............56%
Northeast...............31%
Midwest...............28%
South...............45%
West...............34%
Urban...............27%
Suburban...............40%
Rural...............45%
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORABLE OR UNFAVORABLE OPINION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY?
favorable...............52%
unfavorable...............43%
Demographic breakdown of those with a favorable opinion:
Men...............45%
Women...............59%
Whites...............43%
Non-whites...............75%
18 to 34...............57%
35 to 49...............50%
50 to 64...............54%
65 & over...............46%
Under $50k...............62%
Over $50k...............46%
No college...............56%
Attended college...............50%
Liberal...............73%
Moderate...............63%
Conservative...............30%
Northeast...............63%
Midwest...............56%
South...............47%
West...............45%
Urban...............61%
Suburban...............42%
Rural...............54%
These are some pretty terrible numbers for the Republicans. The only group that has a more favorable opinion of Republicans than Democrats are conservatives, which is no surprise. A few groups were either tied or within the margin of error -- whites, over 65, and suburban voters. ALL other groups showed a significant preference for the Democrats over the Republicans. The GOP still has a little more than a year to turn these numbers around. If they don't, they could receive a real spanking from the voters in 2014.