Republicans Gain Ground With Public, Poll Shows

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Polling

(CBS)

With the midterm elections looming, a new Washington Post/ABC News poll suggests that Democrats have lost ground against their Republican rivals.

Asked which party they will support in the November House elections, Americans split evenly between the parties, with 46 percent choosing Democrats and the same percentage choosing the GOP.

Just four months ago, the Post notes, Democrats held a clear advantage on this question: Fifty-one percent said they would choose Democrats to 39 percent for Republicans.

President Obama's lead over congressional Republicans on perceptions of his handling health care, the economy, the federal budget deficit and terrorism -- which were all more than 20 points last summer -- have slipped. On the economy, for example, his advantage has fallen from 35 points to just five points.

The poll puts President Obama's overall approval rating at 51 percent. It finds that Americans continue to be unimpressed with Congress, with a clear majority disapproving of its performance.

Both this poll and a new Quinnipiac University survey find that a majority of the public opposes trying terrorism suspects in federal courts, as the Obama administration plans to do.

The Quinnipiac survey finds that more than three in four do not want the alleged Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tried in civilian courts.

Despite this, the Post poll finds that 56 percent of Americans support President Obama's performance when it comes to fighting terrorism, a higher rating than he gets on matters like the economy, health care, jobs and the federal budget deficit.

While the GOP's image has improved, a majority of Americans still view it negatively, according to the Post poll. The Democratic Party fairs slightly better, with 50 percent viewing it positively and 46 percent negatively.

Registered independents break for the GOP 51 percent to 35 percent when it comes to how they will vote in the House races in November, reversing the Democratic advantage with this group before the 2006 midterm elections. Still, majorities of independents view both parties negatively.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
Follow on Twitter »

7 Comments Have Your Say
Email Story Send to a Friend
Share This Tell Your Friends
Tweet This Tweet This
More Share It

Add a Comment


by ky7474 February 10, 2010 10:14 PM EST: Repubs and their special interest groups just destroyed our economy and the lives of millions of innocent Americans. No remorse, just a bunch of cocky, arrogant, sold out politicians. This group broke the cardinal sin of governing, they sold out the country for their own personal gain. This is probably the largest crime in the history of the US. There needs to be an all out investigation with no mercy. This was no accident, this was calculated.; Reply to this comment


by sirron66 February 10, 2010 5:58 PM EST: If only there were a "none of the above" box. The choices we have are always: which one of these crooks do I vote for? They are all just puppets. Logic and Reason do not exist anymore. Accountability is a very foreign word in politics. And we have no one to blame but ourselves. The change we need is not the one we got, we just got a different color.; Reply to this comment


by ohiopolitico February 10, 2010 5:07 PM EST: Government create jobs? Yeah right, they can't even get their own city plowed out of a snowstorm! Government is shut-down for days because they can't get through their own streets??!!
This is a perfect example why we Don't need more government....; Reply to this comment


by truthtoday February 10, 2010 4:04 PM EST: 1. Obama must stop lecturing and start listening.
2. Americans are rejecting his socialist agenda.
3. Biden holds a transparency meeting that?s closed to the press and public.
4. Obama, Pelosi, and Reid?s excessive spending is bankrupting America.
5. Debt is $12.3 trillion, 2010 budget is $3.6 trillion, 2011 budget is $3.8 trillion.
6. Obama?s health reform, closed door meetings, exclude republicans, back room bribes and sweetheart deals to buy off democrats, and it?s real cost is $2.5 trillion over 10 years.
7. Cap and Trade Carbon Tax will send jobs overseas and increase electricity costs $2,000 to $3,000 per household per year.
8. Stimulus bill, $850 billion, no jobs created, only spends 7% for rebuilding our infrastructure, and it dumps expensive mandated programs onto states that they cannot afford.
9. Obama wants a second stimulus bill, rename it a jobs bill, to waste and misspend more money. Why didn?t the first stimulus work?
10. America must use all of it?s energy sources to reduce the $700 billion per year spent on foreign oil. If half of that money was spent on developing our offshore and onshore oil and natural gas reserves it would create thousands of jobs and inject billions of dollars into our economy.
11. Obama refuses to call the killing of 13 and wounding of 30 at Ft. Hood an act of terrorism or call the shooter Major Nidal Malik Hasan a terrorist.
12. Abdulmutallab, underwear bomber, only questioned for 50 minutes then given the same rights as American citizens is a travesty.
13. Granting Kalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) a civilian trail with access to intelligence reports and military documents is idiotic. Plus it endangers the lives of CIA and FBI personnel.
14. Iran is enriching uranium to build a nuclear bomb. Israel is becoming more and more concerned over America?s commitment to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. Sanctions should have been imposed on Iran months ago.
15. Obama ignores Iranians, Venezuelans, Cubans, and Hondurans demonstrating, fighting, and risking their lives for freedom. He prefers to support and become friends with dictators.; Reply to this comment

by noloyalisti February 10, 2010 3:40 PM EST

Yeah, let's put the same corporate politicians in power that lied us into two wars that have pushed our economy off the cliff.

Sounds like a good American plan.

Reply to this comment


by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 4:38 PM EST: Was that the time we nuked the Native Americans to start the Civil War?


by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 4:39 PM EST: Because they had already sold the Brooklyn Bridge at a loss, so the nukes were really uncalled-for.