In fact, registered voters now prefer Republicans in control by the largest margin since polling began 15 years ago.

But buried in the Journal/NBC poll is a contradictory nugget: Registered voters, by a 47 percent to 41 percent spread, would rather have Republicans in charge of Congress. That’s the highest level of preference for Republican control since the question was first posed 15 years ago. At a time when the White House is fond of the mantra that an election is “a choice, not a referendum,” it appears that voters aren’t ready to choose Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi over Speaker John Boehner.

Go figure. They still prefer the folks who fought for tax cuts and balanced budgets over those who hiked taxes and delivered a $1.6 trillion annual deficit.