GOP Gains Modest in 2010, Say Political Insiders

A desperate Republican Party base that wants it country back from the black man elected president won't get much good news from next year's election.

The 2010 off-year elections, generally presenting a loss for the Party in power, will feature tiny gains for the GOP at most, a majority of political insiders in the National Journal say in a new poll.

The poll was conducted by James A. Barnes and Peter Bell.

All U.S. Representatives and one third of U.S. Senators are up for election every two years.

As the worst recession since the Great Depression perhaps subsides next year, the Democratic Party is seen by most as suffering minimal losses.

Ninety-nine percent of Democratic insiders and 94 percent of GOP insiders polled see no chance to a moderate chance of the GOP taking control of the House of Representatives.

Eighty-six percent of Democratic insiders and 55 percent of GOP insiders polled see either a net Democratic gain or a GOP pick-up of only one to two seats in the Democratically controlled U.S. Senate.

As a political brand, the Republican Party remains damaged.

It is seen as shrill, paranoid and out-of-touch as more scholarly conservatives scramble "to disassociate themselves from Birthers, WorldNetDaily, and other objectively crazy people," in the words of Ed Kilgore.