Two interesting pieces on this one here, first from NBC’s first thoughts:

*** GOP goes off the image cliff: The clock is ticking over whether President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner can avoid going over the so-called fiscal cliff at the beginning of next year. But our new NBC/WSJ poll shows that the Republican Party has already gone off one cliff, per co-pollster Peter Hart (D) — the image cliff. The GOP’s fav/unfav rating in the poll now stands at 30%/45% (minus-15), which is down from 36%/43% (minus-7) right before the election. That’s compared with the Democratic Party’s 44%/35% rating (plus-9). And other than self-described Republicans and conservatives, just two other groups have a net positive view of the GOP: folks who live in rural America (39%/33%) and folks who live in the South (39%/38%), that’s it. What’s more, asked to give a word or short phrase to describe the Republican Party, 65% offered a negative comment, including MORE THAN HALF of Republicans. The top responses: “Bad,” “weak,” “negative,” “uncompromising,” “need to work together,” “broken,” “disorganized” and “lost.” By contrast, 37% gave negative descriptions of the Democratic Party, while 35% were positive. A Republican politician or operative might look at our poll and say, “Well, the good news is that our numbers can’t get any lower.” That might be true, and they could very well drag Democrats down with them if there isn’t a deal. But there’s another way to look at the poll: Republicans have a lot to gain, too. And if they want to be a competitive national party again and not simply a regional, rural party, they need to make gains.

Then there is this “crying my blues away in my milk and cookies” post by Erick “I’m too cool to run for office” Erickson:

Over the next couple of years, Barack Obama wants to raise the national debt to $18.9 trillion or so.

John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and the congressional Republicans want to raise the national debt to $18.4 trillion or so.

The present leadership of the Republican Party has gone from making the case that government is the problem and the American people are the solution to making the case that Democratic controlled government is the problem and Republican controlled government is the solution.

By giving up on making the case that government is the problem and pivoting to “Democrats are the problem,” the Republican Party has failed the American people. Historically, when parties lost, their leadership went and hid for an appropriate amount of time under a rock after an acceptance of blame and a resignation.

The present Republican leaders in Washington, instead of hiding under a rock, have taken to standing on the rock and demanding conservatives self flagellate. Neither John Boehner nor Mitch McConnell are visionaries. They are survivors. They survive by recognizing the biggest threat to them and trying to befriend it or neutralize it.

Someone want to hand that poor guy a crying towel, before he drowns in his sorrows? Gott-a-mighty, for the twelve-hundredth time; the problem is not the principles, nor the party, it is the incredibly insanely stupid people who make up the people that vote for that party! The ones who are very prone to lie about stuff, the ones who are prone to go to protests, provoke fights and then lie about it afterwards. That is the problem with the Republican Party! Furthermore, the problem with the Republican Party is the fact that they pick people to run, who kowtow down to the extremists in the party, that tell them to pass legislation that is not even remotely Conservative — and then those very same people lie to those that actually vote for them!

That, and that alone is what is wrong with the party! It is not the image, unless you are a far leftist or something like that; which in case, those who who are would not like that party if they were handing out free cocaine and condoms with free hookers.

The truth is the Republican Party and so-called Conservative movement has not been worth a damn since that day on January 3, 1987, when Senator Barry Morris Goldwater decided that he was not going to take any orders from any special interest groups and decided that a life of retirement was in order. When he left, that Party and that movement went to the toilet. It really kicked into high gear on January 20, 1989, when then President Ronald Wilson Reagan waved goodbye to the people at the airport and prayed that he had left the reigns of the Nation in good hands with his successor.

Image? Nah, more like total rottenness from within.