October 17, 2013 10:46 AM UTC

How'd That Work Out For You, GOP?

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Politico with the beginnings of Republican post-defeat introspection:

The question racing around Washington now is: Have Republicans learned their lesson? Will the GOP finally understand that when you touch the stove, it burns?

Within Republican circles, however, there’s widespread disagreement about exactly what lesson the party might stand to learn. If there’s general consensus that the party got burned, there are already competing narratives on the right about whose hand it was that touched the burner.

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NBC News' First Read sums up what the Republicans ended up with after three weeks of a government shutdown (hint: nothing):

After 16 days of shutdown, after coming close to default, and after it all took a toll on the U.S. economy, we saw two different political outcomes: 1) The Republican Party took a significant hit, and 2) President Obama finds himself in a stronger place than he was a month ago. For the GOP, what it got from the shutdown was all pain and no gain. Major changes to President Obama’s health-care law? Nope. Change to funding levels that would have been different from a clean continuing resolution? Nope. Entitlement reforms? Nope. Leverage the GOP can use before the health law fully goes into effect on Jan. 1? Nope. And here’s what Republicans got in return, according to last week’s NBC/WSJ poll: more of the blame for the shutdown, the party’s favorability rating declining to an all-time low, the health-care law becoming more popular, and Democrats having a better shot in the 2014 midterms than they did before the shutdown.

Not only did Republicans wind up with steaming turd as a prize for throwing a wrench into the government, they also missed an opportunity to rail against Obamacare backed by actual evidence (not much, but still); the coverage of computer problems and glitches in the first week of the Affordable Care Act was subdued in large part because the news cycle was dominated by the shutdown.

Oh, and don't forget that here in Colorado (dubious reporting notwithstanding), the shutdown put Republican Senate candidates Ken Buck and Owen Hill on the record in support of one of the most disastrous strategic political moves in recent memory. Not to mention the untold damage done to the re-election hopes of Rep. Mike Coffman, who made a genuine ass of himself of Ted Cruz-level proportions.

But other than that, this worked out swell.