The amazing part is that pundit Chris Cillizza makes that claim today after detailing how the GOP just got slaughtered in the latest WashPost survey: [emphasis added]:

And, perhaps most troubling for GOP hopes is the fact that just 20 percent of the Post sample identified themselves as Republicans, the lowest that number has been in Post polling since 1983. (No, that is not a typo.)

I noted earlier today how the dismal GOP poll results do not fit in with the preferred Beltway narrative. And sure enough, Cillizza seemed to do his best to assure Republicans that the news wasn't that bad:

That's not to say that 2009 hasn't been a good year for Republicans. By and large, it has been.

Imagine what the those poll results would have looked like if the GOP had had a bad year?