It’s becoming an article of faith, no pun intended, that the GOP (as presently represented by the most loathsome faces of the party) finds itself hip deep in elephant poo. Even Republican-leaning pundits and “strategists” are lamenting on how far the party has fallen, in such a relatively short period of time. What they can’t seem to wrap their heads around is how to get their leadership heading back in the right direction.

Therein lays their biggest problem: when the best the Republican party leadership can do is to trot out John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Jeb Bush as the “new face” of the GOP, the poo pile seems bottomless.

Based on the numbers in a recent GOP internal poll obtained by the Associated Press, the situation might be even more grave than the most loyal of the Republican loyalists imagined:

Republicans are widely viewed by the public as less competent than Democrats to handle issue ranging from health care to education and energy, according to internal polling presented to top GOP officials in Congress…

The survey found the public holds greater confidence in Democrats than in Republicans in handling most of the issues that are involved in Obama’s legislative agenda…Democrats were favored by a margin of 61 percent to 29 percent on education; 59 percent to 30 percent on health care and 59 percent to 31 percent on energy…Democats were also viewed with more confidence in handling taxes, long a Republican strong suit. The only issue among nine in the survey where the two parties were rated as even was in the war on terror.

The survey found Obama’s job approval at 62 percent.

However, lest we get too cocky about the current state of the GOP, let’s remember that it wasn’t so long ago that conventional political wisdom held forth that the GOP was heading for a permanent political majority in America.

National politics is a particularly fickle animal, and it would only take a few negative events to turn opinion quickly. The Dems retook the majority not so much based on their own ideas and plans, but because those of the GOP had become so absolutely toxic.

The time nears for the Democratic Party leadership to put the boldest of plans in motion: an inclusive national healthcare plan that leaves no American without access to good medical care, labor laws that favor workers over corporations, and an end to regressive tax laws that cause the working class to shoulder a disproportionate share of the common tax burden.

Do those three things, and the Democratic Party will be closer to a true permanent majority than the GOP ever dreamed of having.