Are congressional Democrats and President Obama looking better than congressional Republicans in the current debt standoff?
You bet they are.
And how are they doing in the larger battle of ideas?
They’re getting clobbered.
A new Pew Poll released Tuesday shows that by a 50 percent to 35 percent margin, the public believes the Republicans are more extreme in their positions. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, the margin expands to 60 percent to 27 percent. And while Obama’s approval rating has declined to a mere 44 percent, the approval rating of Republican leaders has descended to an abysmal 25 percent.
In September, 2009 Atlantic Monthly named 
