Dems Will Not Benefit Politically From a Government "Shutdown"

First this:

Twenty-nine percent of likely voters would blame Democrats for a government shutdown, compared to 23 percent who would hold Republicans responsible, according to a new poll conducted for The Hill.

The results are surprising because most people blamed the GOP for the last government shutdown, which occurred during President Clinton’s first term. A week before the 1995 shuttering, polls showed the public blamed Republicans by a two-to-one-margin.

I put the word "shutdown" in quotes because as I wrote the other day very little of the government would actually be shut down. Social Security checks will still arrive (in fact, the March checks will have already gone out if the government funding runs out on the 5th), and all essential services will continue. You might not be able to visit the Smithsonian or other tourist sites, but otherwise there will be little evidence that the government is currently out of money.

If the government actually shut down, that would really be something, but that's not going to happen. Democrats would love to provoke another shutdown because they're always about a decade behind reality in their political strategy, but they won't benefit the way they did in 1995.