The new WSJ/NBC poll contains even worse news for the GOP than yesterday’s Gallup result:

Participants in the poll gave the Republican Party overall its lowest marks in the history of Journal polling, which goes back to 1989: More than twice as many hold a negative view of the GOP as a positive one. By contrast, the number of Americans viewing the Democratic Party positively or negatively was nearly equal, at about 40%.

In all, 53% of those polled blamed Republicans for the shutdown, compared with 31% who blamed Mr. Obama—numbers that showed the GOP taking a worse beating than the party did 17 years ago during the last extended shutdown, under President Bill Clinton [bold mine-DL].

To put the positive/negative ratings in perspective, the Republicans are at -29 compared to the Democrats’ -1. Adding insult to injury, not only has the GOP’s negative rating jumped by nine points since last month, but Obama’s approval (47%) is up slightly from the previous poll, and the percentage of respondents saying that the ACA is a “good idea” rose by seven points over last month. It is still at an anemic 38%, but according to the arguments of those seeking to defund the ACA the law shouldn’t be getting more popular. The figure for those responding that the law is a “bad idea” has dropped by six points since June. Respondents also favored a Congress controlled by Democrats by a 47-39% margin. Like the Gallup result, it is just one poll, but the news is so thoroughly bad for the GOP that it is impossible at this point to ignore just how much damage this pointless standoff has done to the party.

Many Republican respondents were unsparing in their view of what their representatives have been doing:

More than a third of Republicans disapproved of how their party’s members in Congress are doing their job, while nearly 40% said congressional Republicans were putting the party’s agenda above the good of the country [bold mine-DL].

When that many people in your own party are against what you’ve been doing, it is absurd to believe that you are in a position to “win” anything.