The Republican party's strategy seems to be to Just Say No as loud as they can.
It doesn't seem to be working, of course, as we've seen in poll after poll. But let's look at the last 20 years of favorability ratings for the parties for some perspective:
Click to enlarge. Dotted lines show elections.
These are net favorability ratings - percent favorable minus percent unfavorable. While Republicans have been bouncing off of record lows for the past three years, in 2009 they've managed to sink well below their prior record. More on the flip.
Karl Rove's plans for a Permanent Republican Majority were based in part on this realization: if the Republican Party wants to regularly win national elections in the future, it must appeal to Latino voters. McCain only attracted around 30%, but maybe things have improved since then:
Click to enlarge.
This shows the percent of Latino respondents in the Daily Kos poll who have a favorable view of the Republican party. Prior to Sotomayor's nomination, that was around 12% - lousy by any measure. Somehow, since Sotomayor's nomination, Republicans have managed to lose half of what little support they had - they're now down to 7%.
And guess what? Latino voters aren't the only ones paying attention. More below.
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