NBC/WSJ Poll: Primaries Take "Corrosive" Toll on GOP, Candidates

From a recent NBC/msnbc article:

[A] new national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that the combative and heavily scrutinized Republican primary season so far has damaged the party and its candidates. Four in 10 of all adults say the GOP nominating process has given them a less favorable impression of the Republican Party, versus just slightly more than one in 10 with a more favorable opinion. 

Additionally, when asked to describe the GOP nominating battle in a word or phrase, nearly 70 percent of respondents – including six in 10 independents and even more than half of Republicans – answered with a negative comment. Some examples of these negative comments from Republicans: "Unenthusiastic," "discouraged," "lesser of two evils," "painful," "disappointed," "poor choices," "concerned," "underwhelmed," "uninspiring" and "depressed." 

And perhaps most significantly, the GOP primary process has taken a toll on the Republican presidential candidates, including front-runner Mitt Romney, who is seen more unfavorably and whose standing with independents remains underwater. "The primaries have not raised the stature of the party, nor enhanced the appeal of the candidates," says Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. "The word you'd have to use at this stage is: 'Corrosive,'" McInturff adds. 

[...] In January's NBC/WSJ poll, Romney's favorable/unfavorable rating stood at 31 percent to 36 percent among all respondents (and 22/42 percent among independents). But in this latest survey, it's now 28 percent favorable and 39 percent unfavorable (and 22/38 percent among independents). 

In fact, Romney's image right now is worse than almost all other recent candidates who went on to win their party's presidential nomination: Obama's favorable/unfavorable ratio was 51/28 percent and John McCain's was 47/27, in the March 2008 NBC/WSJ poll; John Kerry was at 42/30 at this point in 2004; George W. Bush was 43/32 in 2000; and Bob Dole was 35/39 in March 1996. (The one exception: Bill Clinton, in April 1992, was at 32/43 percent.) 

[...] The damage from the Republican primary season – in addition to a rising job-approval rating for President Obama and more optimism about the U.S. economy – has given Democrats an early advantage for November's general election. Indeed, the president's job-approval rating now stands at 50 percent; Obama leads Romney in a hypothetical general-election match up by six points; and Democrats hold a five-point edge on the generic congressional ballot. When it comes to President Obama, the poll contains mostly good news.  

---"NBC/WSJ poll: Primary season takes 'corrosive' toll on GOP and its candidates," By Mark Murray, NBC News Senior Political Editor, msnbc.msn.com (3.4.12) 

There can be little doubt about it. We're seeing the Republican Party for what it has now become. Its limited political spectrum represents the most conservative, often extreme and irresponsible expressions of laissez faire economics, anti-government and anti-tax ideology, intolerant religious traditions, and resentment of immigration and today's realities. And the candidates' range of general appeal runs from marginal to disappointing within the GOP, to unattractive and unacceptable among independents and Democrats.

It isn't a pretty picture. And there can also be little doubt that, to most of the electorate, President Obama is looking like a more knowledgeable, wiser, and more balanced leader of 21st-century America than any among the GOP candidates can even pretend to be.