The Wall Street Journal, this evening:

Republicans have solidified support among voters who had drifted from the party in recent elections, putting the GOP in position for a strong comeback in November’s mid-term campaign, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

The findings suggest that public opinion has hardened in advance of the 2010 elections, making it tougher for Democrats to translate their legislative successes, or a tentatively improving U.S. economy, into gains among voters.

Republicans have reassembled their coalition by reconnecting with independents, seniors, blue-collar voters, suburban women and small town and rural voters—all of whom had moved away from the party in the 2006 elections, in which Republicans lost control of the House. Those voter groups now favor GOP control of Congress…

The voters who said they were most interested in the November elections favor Republican control of Congress by a 20-point margin, with 56% backing the GOP and 36% backing Democrats—the highest gap all year on that question.

So that could mean, oh, 99 seats in play, huh? Boy, passing health care really saved the Democrats.

Elsewhere in the Journal’s pages, a strategist who knows a thing or two about having great midterm elections and having a miserable one offers this conclusion: “The White House has many tools to change the narrative to its advantage. But it’s unlikely swing voters will abandon their concerns about ObamaCare, spending and deficits. The public, especially independents, increasingly believes Mr. Obama’s policies threaten America’s economic future.” That strategist, of course, is Karl Rove.