Free Republic

The political gains that Democrats made on the generic congressional ballot as a result of the federal government shutdown continue to collapse, as a new CNN/ORC poll shows Republicans re-taking the lead on the generic congressional ballot. Less than a year ahead of the all-important 2014 midterm elections, Republicans now lead Democrats by a 49-47 edge on the ballot, in which pollsters ask respondents if they'd choose a Republican or Democrat without mentioning specific candidates. That's a remarkable shift from just a month ago — when Democrats held a formidable 50-42 advantage as Republicans were getting blamed for the shutdown....

It's a truism in politics that labels matter. When President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in the Senate and House passed healthcare reform legislation in 2010, they developed an official name for the law that they thought would convey the positive benefits of the bill: "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." That name has often been shortened to "Affordable Care Act" in the years since its passage, but the bill has also come to be known as "Obamacare," a name frequently used by Obama himself. Others simply call it the healthcare law. The political news site Politico called...