The GOP's Knee-Jerkism Does Them In

Good analysis over what the Republicans did wrong regarding their partisan opposition to the Iran deal. A serious, thoughtful approach from the GOP would have been able to peel off many Democrats, but the off-putting, arrogant, infantile, deeply-unserious (not to mention treasonous) knee-jerkism that Republicans displayed is all they are capable of doing anymore. And Obama was serious about the matter the entire time, lining up the support of the military and any and every person in Washington and overseas who had ever thought seriously about nuclear issues. Republicans really need to reconsider reflexive anti-Obamaism, because (thankfully) it kills them every time:

This did two things. First, it made them look unserious. From the beginning, the whole point of the economic sanctions against Iran was to use them as leverage to pressure the Iranian leadership to approve a nuclear deal. But by opposing it so quickly—based on an obviously specious desire for a "better deal" that they were never willing to spell out—Republicans made it clear that they opposed any agreement that lifted the sanctions. In other words, they opposed any agreement, period.

Second, by forming so quickly, the Republican wall of opposition turned the Iran agreement into an obviously partisan matter. Once they did that, they made it much harder for Democrats to oppose a president of their own party. A more deliberate approach almost certainly would have helped them pick up more Democratic votes.