As Pete mentioned yesterday, Gallup tells us that the Republicans have jumped out to an historic lead in generic congressional polling — 49 to 43 percent over the Democrats. There are any number of factors at play, but the situation is not improving as Democrats had hoped, but are in fact worsening. Maybe it is a temporary phenomenon associated with the president’s own decline in poll numbers (related, most likely, to the BP oil spill, the economy, the Sestak job scandal, etc.). But at some point, the donors get nervous, the base refuses to get excited, volunteers don’t sign up, and the polls become a self-fulfilling prophesy.

ObamaCare was not the magic bullet Democrats had hoped it would be. Rather it has become a poison pill, which accelerated the downward slide for Obama’s party. There is still time to avert an electoral meltdown, but it’s hard to see what the Democrats could do at this point to save themselves and their majority control of Congress.