As the shutdown fight stretches into its second week, the winds have shifted in favor of the Democrats — at least for the moment.

Early polls say voters are more likely to blame President Trump and the Republicans for the lengthy impasse. The president and his congressional allies are publicly at odds over compensation for furloughed workers. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is sending mixed messages on whether to protect military pay. And prominent cracks are emerging in the GOP’s resistance to extending ObamaCare subsidies.

The combination has put Republican leaders on the defensive, even as they’re faulting Democrats for the long impasse. And the developments have boosted the Democrats’ confidence that they’ll be able to maintain their unified front, both in opposing the GOP’s short-term spending bill and demanding an extension of ObamaCare tax credits, which remains the issue at the center of the deadlock.

“Democrats have been consistent. Our position remains the same, we’ve been saying it for months,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday on the chamber floor. “Republicans are shutting down the government because they refuse to address the crisis in American healthcare.”

A short time later, Schumer joined 43 other Senate Democrats in opposing the Republicans’ continuing resolution (CR). The 54-45 tally fell shy of the 60 votes needed to defeat a filibuster, marking the sixth time the bill has failed in the upper chamber.

Two Democrats and one independent crossed the aisle to support the bill. But all three of those senators — John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats — have supported the bill during the last five rounds of votes. The fact no new Democrats are defecting has........

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