MORE AGONY FOR DEMS – AT 7:30 P.M. ET:  Several new polls confirm that the Democrtic Party has seen better days. 

One poll, by AP, measured opinion on the most divisive issues:

WASHINGTON — Americans with the strongest opinions about the country's most divisive issues are largely unhappy with how President Barack Obama is handling them, an ominous sign for Democrats hoping to retain control of Congress in the fall elections.

In nine of 15 issues examined in an Associated Press-GfK Poll this month, more Americans who expressed intense interest in a problem voiced strong opposition to Obama's work on it, including the economy, unemployment, federal deficits and terrorism. They were about evenly split over the president's efforts on five issues and strongly approved of his direction on just one: U.S. relationships with other countries.

That last one is strange, given the repeated failures of Obama foreign policies.  I wonder how the question was phrased.

In another danger sign for Democrats, most Americans extremely concerned about 10 of the issues say they will vote for the Republican candidate in their local House race. Only those highly interested in the environment lean toward the Democrats.

Yeah.  The words "global warming" generally don't pass through Republican lips.

And then there's Ohio, which often reflects national trends.  The PPP polling organization did some work there:

We'll start rolling out our Ohio poll results tomorrow but there's one finding on the poll that pretty much sums it up: by a 50-42 margin voters there say they'd rather have George W. Bush in the White House right now than Barack Obama.

Independents hold that view by a 44-37 margin and there are more Democrats who would take Bush back (11%) than there are Republicans who think Obama's preferable (3%.)

A couple months ago I thought the Pennsylvanias and Missouris and Ohios of the world were the biggest battlegrounds for 2010 but when you see numbers like this it makes you think it's probably actually the Californias and the Wisconsins and the Washingtons.

Yikes.  Those last three are Dem strongholds.  If they're in play, we might be able to dream big dreams. 

August 31, 2010