Gallup: Democrats drop below GOP in pre-convention favorability
posted at 11:21 am on August 30, 2012 by Ed Morrissey
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.
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Please don’t inject reality into this.
tgharris on May 14, 2013 at 10:50 PM
There are 3 cities on the Libyian coast with airports of note. Benghazi is one of them, easternmost. If you were flying in weapons heading east,, what would you pick? Tripoli is all the way west. 120 miles or so from Tunisia.
Stevens had dinner that night with who?
They were running guns, folks.
Security was kept low as to not draw attention.
wolly4321 on May 14, 2013 at 10:52 PM
You’ll have to pardon Babs Boxer. Just like Pelosi, Botox is taking it’s toll.
GarandFan on May 14, 2013 at 10:56 PM
“There is no distinctly American criminal class – except Congress.” – Mark Twain
Dr. ZhivBlago on May 14, 2013 at 10:59 PM
And what is your point?
Such a fact would work to excuse the lies and put the exposure on CIA.
Helps Hillary and POTUS.
No?
IlikedAUH2O on May 14, 2013 at 10:59 PM
I detested the dumb remark about Sandra Fluke during the last campaign.
If Rushbo wants to call a woman a derogatory name….just lookie here.
IlikedAUH2O on May 14, 2013 at 11:01 PM
holy fluck you are an idiot.
tom daschle concerned on May 14, 2013 at 11:06 PM
What the hell is she wearing? She looks like she’s about to lead a Jazzercise class.
And she’s an idiot.
LASue on May 14, 2013 at 11:12 PM
You really don’t get it, do you?
No, it doesn’t help them. How would it?
CIA? Yea,. They are all complicit and shifting blame in a shell game.
Jihad is legitimate as a tenet of islam? Who said that?
These gubmint agencies may be fighting each other in the aftermath, but they started out in concert with each other. when it falls apart they isolate and blame each other.
Look at f&f. Same thing. Blame game.
wolly4321 on May 14, 2013 at 11:19 PM
Lies, bullshxt, lies, distractions, lies, propaganda, lies, Boxer, and lies.
Kenosha Kid on May 14, 2013 at 11:35 PM
Where’s a fire hose when you need it?
RobertMN on May 14, 2013 at 11:49 PM
Low information voters will hear her and believe her, and repeat it ad nauseum. That’s why the democrats lie perpetually even after the truth comes out. They know the lies will be long-lived, because the media supports the lies and ignores the truth.
The Rogue Tomato on May 14, 2013 at 11:57 PM
Barbara Boxer would be the dumbest person in the Senate, but she’s been bumped back by Patty Murray, Klochubar, and Babs Mikulski. Between the four of them, if brains were beans, they don’t have enough to make a bee fart.
Clearly funding wasn’t the issue, and just as clearly Boxer and Democrats are desperate to derail the investigation because of what it is certain to turn up. Because if the mountains of paper and dozens of witnesses Obama is blocking Congress from seeing were in any way helpful to him, or proved he was telling the truth, they would already be out.
Adjoran on May 15, 2013 at 12:03 AM
TDC- yep.
wolly4321 on May 15, 2013 at 12:12 AM
.
The only mistake ( maybe ) he made is not inquiring whether Ms Fluke was campaigning for herself, as well as others.
If she was including herself in the number of “needy” college girls, then the shoe F I T !
.
Conservative radio talk-show hosts should have no boundaries on them for using legitimate words in common usage, whether others deem it to be too vulgar or not.
listens2glenn on May 15, 2013 at 12:28 AM
..what an absolutely horrid piece of of flesh this creature is; a festering pile of pig afterbirth decaying in the 103 degree afternoon Barstow sun is more appealing than she. A rancid, fetid mound of cow diarrhea attracts a smaller swarm of flies than she. Reminds me of a dumpster full of used Kotexes, she does..
..I want to vomit.
The War Planner on May 15, 2013 at 12:37 AM
OK. Calling a law student a “slut” during a presidential campaign in front of 20 million listeners must make sense to some people but I am sure not one of them.
She wanted freebies. I really didn’t care about her sex habits and using that term just generated a lot of heat and very little light on the real subject.
IlikedAUH2O on May 15, 2013 at 12:48 AM
Bingo! Yep, MSNBC and the rest have a new video and needn’t worry about any truth in it.
IlikedAUH2O on May 15, 2013 at 12:51 AM
Turkish embassy person.
And our people ask for more security and the high and mighty decline it, over and over.
Still makes no sense.
IlikedAUH2O on May 15, 2013 at 12:57 AM
About Boxer: I didn’t know that donkey squeeze could talk.
hamradio on May 15, 2013 at 12:59 AM
Every now and then, Babs (Oops, that’s Sen. Babs) has to demonstrate to the world how truly stupid she is.
Today she did just that.
Another Drew on May 15, 2013 at 1:49 AM
Oh, Babs will go down with the ship. She’s a fanatic.
mojo on May 15, 2013 at 1:50 AM
Pathetic.
Delusional.
Democrat tool.
profitsbeard on May 15, 2013 at 2:34 AM
Shameless stupidity. And a reflection on her seriousness as a Senator.
pat on May 15, 2013 at 2:38 AM
Charlene Lamb testified in sworn testimony to Congress that budget was not a factor in cutting the security arrangements in Libya. She said it was a policy decision to go with a “lighter footprint” in a “laughably naive notion that if we were weak enough, nobody would see us as a threat so they wouldn’t attack us”. Ok, maybe I made up the “laughably naive” part, but the rest of it is true.
Boxer is, as usual, being dishonest.
crosspatch on May 15, 2013 at 4:18 AM
The Benghazi embassy was intentionally left to fly in the wind and everyone who is paying attention recognizes this. Boxer’s screeching is but the sound of nothing but stupid usery and I’d bet she knows this herself.
Whether it was a Hillary-plan or an Obama one handed down by indirect suggestions or direct nastiness on the lawn or across the street from the WH in that Islam-associated coffee shop, it was certainly an intentional act to reduce-deny security protections to that embassy location — or to the staff associated with the place (either/or, personnel or location, “what does it matter”).
Lourdes on May 15, 2013 at 4:35 AM
If the only way to get this jackass out of the Senate is to give California back to Mehico, I say “Let’s do it!”
olesparkie on May 15, 2013 at 6:03 AM
There are many worthy nominees for absolute dumbest member of Congress (both houses), but Boxer seems to always find a way to justify her perpetual inclusion on that list.
If want to know why California will sink into the Pacific long before any earthquake forces the issue, look no further than who they keep electing: Queen Pelosi, Gov Moonbeam, their entire state legislature, and yes, Barbara Boxer.
NeoCon_1 on May 15, 2013 at 7:09 AM
Barbara,
Let’s say for a minute that you are correct and that it is completely the GOP’s fault that there was less money for diplomatic security at the time of the Benghazi fiasco.
Now, explain how that results in the GOP being responsible for the Obama administration ignoring warnings of possible terrorist attacks in Egypt.
Next explain how the lack of funding caused the Obama administration to purposefully lie about the cause of the Benghazi attack and use the full weight of the U.S. Gov’t to go after someone for exerting his first amendment rights in making a video?
You see Babs, even assuming that your idiotic first claim is true, it doesn’t absolve Obama for incompetence and dishonesty.
Monkeytoe on May 15, 2013 at 7:32 AM
Point to Schumer, since he’s in charge of messaging. I can’t believe the Democrats are going here, but then this isn’t for normal people, this is for the low information voter.
bflat879 on May 15, 2013 at 7:52 AM
Another glowing example of the wisdom found in California politics!
Pardonme on May 15, 2013 at 7:56 AM
I bet he’s a Republican HACK! Investigate his political contributions!
/libstupidity (let’s!)
Axeman on May 15, 2013 at 8:01 AM
What difference does it make who cut security–whether it was Republicans and their voodoo cuts in the unpassed Ryan budget or some guys out for a walk one night who decided to cut security for the Libyan consulate.
Axeman on May 15, 2013 at 8:11 AM
As I said the first time they tried this: Democrats had claimed that the only reason that cons don’t like big government is that they can’t manage it like libs can. But now they say that without as much funding as they can theorize, they can’t allocate a minimum level of security for one of the hottest embassies on the planet.
Cutting funding is bad. Cutting funding is bad….the first word on Obamacare was to “bend the cost curve downward”. We were spending “too much” (for an aging populace?) on medical care.
Axeman on May 15, 2013 at 8:17 AM
The “repubs cut funding” must have gone out on journolist, or the super-double-secret meetings, or Valerie’s texts, or whatever. I’ve seen them trying that one quite a bit lately.
Boudica on May 15, 2013 at 8:27 AM
It was already stated by state that funding had no role. Running lies is bad enough. How stupid do you have to be to run a lie that the administration had debunked. Really really stupid Senator.
scboy on May 15, 2013 at 8:47 AM
lipstick on a hag…still a hag…a hag in a pantsuit
crosshugger on May 15, 2013 at 8:53 AM
Of all the scandals we get to choose from lately, it seems like Benghazi is the one they are freaking out about the most, and trying to act like they really don’t care about it. “No big deal, just rethuglicans hyper-partisan hysteria, move along…” But really, this is the one they are peeing their pants(suits) over.
Boudica on May 15, 2013 at 9:01 AM
Senile ‘ol biddy. I cannot believe Cali re-elected her. What a bunch of goofs out there.
jake49 on May 15, 2013 at 9:47 AM
Gee, another bad case of plastic face. Her face is as phony as the rest of her.
{^_^}
herself on May 15, 2013 at 10:13 AM
Barbara Boxer should thank her lucky stars for Maxine Waters, the only person keeping her from being the stupidest member of Congress.
Tyrone Slothrop on May 15, 2013 at 10:42 AM
It would be so worth going to jail for punching this woman in the face, but alas, I won’t. I wish North Korea would nuke California off the map.
F_This on May 15, 2013 at 12:42 PM
This is so F’in dumb. Even IF you grant that budget cuts could scale back security at some State Dept facilities abroad, is it even REMOTELY thinkable that we’d start with… say, I don’t know… oh, I know, facilities in a country that just had a civil war ?
Come on already. Are you really THAT dumb ? Or do you just think THAT little of the people of this country that this idea wasn’t dismissed immediately.
Give me a break.
So even IF budget cuts were a factor, wouldn’t that STILL lay at the feet of the incompetent members of the Obama administration that, faced with budget cuts for security, thought Benghazi and Libya were the places to save money ?
deadrody on May 15, 2013 at 4:30 PM
Barbara Boxer is part of the reason California is filled to the brim with unemployed illegal transient/migrant people from other places.
If the government weren’t spending so much money on GREEN ENERGY scams and filling the coffers of corrupt politicians it WOULD have enough money to fund the government departments that should be funded…i.e. like our military.
President Obama and his minions have been VERY,VERY bad boyz and gurlz…..They don’t just LIE, they believe their lies, they spread their lies and their lies have bankrupted our future and killed many in their path….AND they aren’t done folks! Expect the desperate to come unhidged!
ActinUpinTexas on May 15, 2013 at 5:03 PM
Do budget cuts cause talking points to change?
djaymick on May 15, 2013 at 8:27 PM
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