Posted on 08/30/2012 9:10:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Don't get too excited by this result, because Republicans weren't exactly blowing the doors off on favorability with registered voters before the conventions started, either. However, Democrats are, for the first time since Gallup began surveying on this question, doing worse than Republicans. And also for the first time, Democrats find themselves underwater — and not by a narrow margin, either (via Instapundit):
In the lead-up to this year's presidential convention period, 44% of registered voters held a favorable view of the Republican Party and 43% of the Democratic Party. While the Republicans' favorable rating is similar to where it stood before the conventions kicked off in 2008, the Democrats' is 11 percentage points lower. It is also the lowest pre-conventions favorable score the Democrats have received among voters in Gallup records dating to 1992. …
The relatively low ratings for both parties likely reflect Americans’ broader dissatisfaction with the country’s direction and government leaders, including Congress. The parity of ratings mirrors the political polarization Gallup sees in national party identification, and contrasts with 2008, when the Democratic Party entered the convention period with a significant image advantage. However, historically, it is not unusual for the parties to have similar ratings at this point in an election year, including in 2004, 2000, and 1992.
How has party identification changed since 2008? In a survey taken the week after the election, the D/R/I split was 33/28/37, but with leaners it was 51/40 Democrats. In April 2009, it reached a peak of 53/34, a nearly 20-point spread. Now, it stands at 29/26/42, with Democrats holding a 3-point lead at 44/43 when counting leaners. Keep in mind that this is a general-population poll, not a turnout model, too.
Let’s get back to the pre-convention favorability ratings. Four years ago, Republicans limped into St. Paul with a 41/51 favorability. That’s not much improved this year at 44/50. Prior to 2008, the GOP routinely had narrow majorities of favorability between 50-53%. Even with the big midterm win, the Republican Party has not experienced a renaissance of respectability, at least not yet.
Democrats, though, have cratered in the era of Hope and Change. In 2008, they had a +15 at 54/39, in line with their ratings in every election since 1992 except 2004′s 48/40. This year, they hit 43/52, a -9 favorability, and a 24-point swing from four years ago. Those are the wages of disillusionment. Where did the love go? The Democratic Party lost 15 points in favorability among men (51% in 2008, 36% today), 17 points among those 35-54 (56% to 39%), and eight points for those 55 and older (53% to 41%). Among white voters, favorability dropped 17 points to just 33% today.
The independent demo should probably worry Democrats most. It’s relatively unchanged for the GOP, increasing a single point from 2008 to 38%. For Democrats, though, favorability dropped twelve points from 47% to 35% — putting them slightly behind Republicans in favorability. That will impact races all the way down the ballot, and shows that the Democratic post-midterm strategy has been a huge flop.
I think as more and more people get their information from the internet and other sources rather than sitting and watching the “programming” on TV, a more accurate reality sets in.
I really don’t think it was wise for Dems to have that Islamic thing -Jummah- that lasted 2 hours? But then, maybee for us it was a good thing.
“I really don’t think it was wise for Dems to have that Islamic thing -Jummah- that lasted 2 hours? But then, maybee for us it was a good thing.”
Yep, when your enemy is making mistakes, you never warn them, just let ‘em step on the landmines.
I think that's what Ryan described as "a boat trying to sail on yesterdays wind."
It shows their true colors!!! And Barack's true religion
Ha ha—I heard that last night and immediately thought, ‘there’s certainly an insertion by the speechwriters’. Nothing like a good sailing metaphor to get speechwriters excited!
There’s a hilarious clip somewhere from Gerald Ford back in the 70’s carrying on with shipping, sailing, and boating metaphors nonstop for a good five minutes. Some speechwriter of his really got carried away.
I'm glad I was able to see it....
While I was listening to it, I was remembering when I was watching the debates between Reagan and Carter, and Ronnie says, "Well,... there you go again!"
Carter was so flustered that at one point I couldn't figure out whether he wanted to just walk off the stage or hit Ronnie but couldn't bring himself to because he was to conflicted in his Christianity to do it.
Back then the media hadn't perfected the art of Hackery....
I'm glad I was able to see it....
While I was listening to it, I was remembering when I was watching the debates between Reagan and Carter, and Ronnie says, "Well,... there you go again!"
Carter was so flustered that at one point I couldn't figure out whether he wanted to just walk off the stage or hit Ronnie but couldn't bring himself to because he was to conflicted in his Christianity to do it.
Back then the media hadn't perfected the art of Hackery....
Yes, I thought he did a good job.
But it is also likely the springboard for the campaigning he’ll do in the next two months, and Larry is right: Ryan focused on debt without linking it to bread-and-butter employment issues.
Both Christie and Ryan have said that Romney’s going to hit us with the hard truths. If the debt on its own is actually the emphasis of Romney’s speech and campaign, it’s gonna be a tough haul.
When we see the Battleground polls showing that the GOP is favored in the Senate as well as the House, then I will be excited that the GOP can actually win the whole kaboodle. Ryan and Condi and Martinez gave me more joy than the Establishment GOP which continued to tell us that Bama is not a bad guy but he had a chance. He not only is a bad guy but his policies as 2016 and Agenda has shown, has been to punish America. Ryan and Mitt do not want to punish but to get us back in the game domestically and internationally. If now only the voters agree instead of being scammed by emotive liberal lies, the US will do it.
Don’t forget Code Pink in their V-Suits!
If Romney's speech does crescendo just right.....we might as well start calling him John McCain JR or Bob Dole-drum.
Yeah, I guess our best hope has to come from his campaign having given fairly good speeches to Mrs. R and Ryan—and Mrs. R and Ryan appearing to have been pretty well prepped for their presentations.
Don't forget college professors. Remember that article from The Chronicle of Higher Education about the professor who sent a work e-mail stating that he wanted to devote class time to encourage students to vote for BO?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.