Pelosi And Reid Are In Power But Unknown
As the 110th Congress gets underway, the new Democratic leaders of both the House of Representatives and the Senate remain unfamiliar to most Americans, according to a new CBS News poll.
More than seven in 10 Americans are undecided or haven't heard enough about Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat and the first woman Speaker of the House, to have an opinion of her. Those who do have an opinion are divided: 14 percent of Americans view her favorably, while 12 percent view her unfavorably.
As expected, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to view Pelosi favorably. 24 percent of Democrats have a favorable opinion of the Speaker, while 30 percent of Republicans hold a negative view of her.
Read the complete CBS News poll results.
The new Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, is even more unknown to the public than Speaker Pelosi. 86 percent of Americans are undecided or haven't heard enough about Reid. Among those with an opinion, 5 percent have a favorable one, while 8 percent hold an unfavorable view. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to view Majority Leader Reid unfavorably.
This poll was conducted among a random sample of 993 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone January 1-3, 2007. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.