Congressional Dems approval down, R's recover

[OzarkDem]

Latest poll shows if Congressional elections were held today, 42% would vote Republican, 47% would vote for the Democratic candidate.

Previous month Repubs only had 38% to Dems 50% - the highest they had polled in more than a year.

IMHO the bounce last month came when Pelosi and a few others finally spoke out about the Katrina fiasco. But crawling back behind the rock hasn't helped them this month.

When will they learn the public will only support them if they speak out? Repubs can be up to their necks in scandal and it won't help Dems unless they show some unity and presence as a viable alternative to voters. You can't back your way into victory.

This is unbelievably frustrating and disappointing.

http://www.pollingreport.com/2006.htm

[tompayne1]

1. They need to speak up

I hate how they have been being such bloody cowards these past months.

[Cha]

2. Years. .but not all of them.

They shouldn't be lumped together. There have been a few who speak out..but as a party they can't quite all get together on it. Like a DUer said.."the dems take turns being dinos."

[AtomicKitten]

3. I agree, speak up

For crissakes, somebody poke the dems with a stick and see if they are still alive. They collectively have zero balls with few exceptions.

[AX10]

4. How are we going to win next year and 08' if...

they don't speak up? :eyes:

[longship]

5. You can't support a political movement from under a rock.

You have to stand out in the open, preferably on top of the rock, and use your loudest voice so that it may be heard.

While under the rock nobody can hear you. While under the rock nobody can see you. While under the rock the opposition has free reign.

[CoffeeCat]

6. You are right....it is frustrating.

I agree with you. The Dems need to speak out.

America does not like BushCo right now. The time is ripe to stand up, fight and kick some major ass.

It's not like Bush is a popular pResident. Dems should have no fear about standing up and speaking out. Furthermore, Dems are on the correct side of practically all of the major issues. The public is unhappy with the Iraq war. They don't like how Fema handled Katrina and Rita. They're ticked about high gas prices and not-so-hot on the economy.

Dems need to start attacking. However, they also need a plan of their own--something that American can turn toward.

America would fall all over the Dems right now--if they could offer concrete, workable solutions and HOPE. We need our own "Contract With America" that is cogent, sensible and lacking in the fascism and elitism that Gingrich's idea contained. It would be so easy...why aren't Dems stepping up to the plate?

Did we elect them to be wet blankets?

They need to kick it into gear...I'm wondering why they aren't doing these things.

[OzarkDem]

7. Maybe a rally or lobby day in DC

It might be time for Dems to get our party's attention and let them know we expect more from them.

Rally at the DNC and Congress? Go visit all of our Dem senators and reps? Have a massive call and fax date - all with the same message - get off your butts and lead!

[Lorien]

8. Yep, and it ain't just the media's fault

Every time a thread like this pops up, so do dozens of "but they don't get coverage from the MSM" posts. It's true that our side doesn't have the surrogates that their side does, but aside from a handful (like Conyers) how many Dem reps even use strong language or put out bold ideas on their own blogs?

[OzarkDem]

9. Still no coordinated communication effort from Dems

They don't appear to have much of a coordinated media effort, no talking points, no message, nothing. Its almost as if they're not even there.

I can't believe they think this is a good strategy.

On edit: they must think they have to keep quiet while they raise money from lobbyists. Oy.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. James Carville, long ago, was dead-on right about one thing ......

Just stand for ****something****.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

11. Can you smell the rock isn't cooking?

[AndyTiedye]

12. Democratic Approval Ratings Down Because

...the Democrats in DC ran up the white flag on Bush**'s Supreme Court nominees
and has made it clear that they will NOT defend reproductive freedom.

[Lexingtonian]

13. That's a crap poll.

Midterm elections have low to zero centrist turnout. The Newsweek polling is misleading because (a) it's only moving numbers around within the margin of error and (b) the way they asked the questions multiple times to try to get the unsure pollees to respond with a partisan answer.

The most accurate poll on that page is IMHO the Opinion Dynamics set, aka Fox News's. It has that No Difference/Neither category which amounts to people who for practical purposes won't show up to vote, and that in roughly the usual numbers. That 32/40 split is the lowest Republican and highest Democratic number seen in a very long time and probably verified by internal pollings on both sides, if you hear both sides talk. It has Republican election professionals in extreme anxiety. That's why so much is being done at the moment to mollify moderate Republicans- who make up that Unsure bloc- by the Bush people.

The bad news in the Opinion Dynamics polling is that if you backtrack the Unsures, they appear to be entirely people who voted Republican last November. There are enough of them that Democratic victory is becoming possible, but we've only gotten them halfway away from voting Republican- and they're still sadly prone to sliding back to voting Republican en masse. We need to get them to do that second step, over to No Difference/Neither. (Full en bloc partisan shifts tend to involve sitting out or voting Third Party one election and a second election cycle, in this case '08, to complete the transition.) I feel sure a year of further Bush misgovernance and DeLay escapades will suffice to do it.

Katrina has greatly softened Bush support internally but has not, strictly speaking, decreased the overall number who support him. They're hanging in there with weaker belief in that cause. It'll take more for them to give up on the man- the slow grind that is Iraq, or DeLay's trouble, or another major Al Qaeda attack on the order of the London or Madrid bombings. Bush has a fairly constant true loss rate of 1.2 million voters (i.e. 1% of the electorate) a month who vacillate emotionally around the time they leave him- they can be pulled in weakly for a while longer by some PR event and yet get lost abruptly over some unexpected major political event or action. This is concealed in polling by emotionalism among marginal Bush supporters who dissent vehemently at times but do return to approval of his policies and behavior pretty rapidly. Loud talking by Democrats does nothing in polling, btw.

[Awsi Dooger]

15. The polls also show the gender gap is re-emerging

That's really the only thing I'm concerned with, recapturing the support of white women. They broke toward the GOP and national security fears in 2004. Get it back to even and we're fine.

The very recent surveys that have broken down the vote by gender give us a huge edge among females, low double digits, so no doubt the white women have reassessed their priorities. The polls that gave us the overall 12 point lead a few weeks ago were over hyped garbage, when you looked at the internals. They had men favoring Democrats by substantial margin, up to 5 or 6 points overall. Yeah, and 20 points in Utah.

As you indicated, we still need more of the same for legit movement not short term disillusionment.. I'd love to bottle and ration this GOP incompetence over the next 13 to 37 months. The soft GOP supporters are reluctant/embarrassed to admit their preference for Republicans right now, and have drifted to unsure, or perhaps independent depending on the type of poll. "...still sadly prone to sliding back to voting Republican en masse." Unfortunately, that's the most accurate assessment I've read. I am encouraged by the party ID numbers that continue to give us a slight edge, generally two points at worst.

[OzarkDem]

17. Not enough

Again, those changes occur in response to R's not in response to anything the Dems themselves.

The scenario is ripe for R's to develop their own "reform" movement within their own party - to distance themselves from DeLay, et al, and recapture those voters.

[OzarkDem]

16. Blaming voters gets us nowhere

No one is arguing that Katrina has softened Bush's support. The problem is that Dems have done nothing to take advantage of it. Dem numbers should be showing a rising trend, not a falling or stagnant one. Bush is losing voters and Dems aren't picking them up.

They're showing zero leadership. They're nearly invisible in Washington DC these days, the result of their own undoing. Analyze it all you want, but there is no excuse for this poor performance and blaming it on voters is ludicrous.

Is that what we've come to, a party that no longer responds to voters, but only to lobbyists? A party that puts corporate fundraising ahead of all else? Any politician who can't understand that its his or her job to influence those voters to their benefit needs to pack up and go home.

[ochazuke]

14. They suck

I haven't heard a single Dem. Senator stand up against the fascist takeover of the Supreme Court.

It's all one big happy club as far as they're concerned. Even though Frist and co. promise to nuke 'em if they get out of line.