by Frank James
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According to Gallup, the Democratic Party’s 53 percent favorable rating compares with the Republicans’ 38 percent rating.
Here’s how Gallup puts it:
PRINCETON, NJ — Public attitudes toward the two major political parties have not changed much in recent months. That’s good news for the Democratic Party, which moved into a superior image position when compared to the Republican Party more than a year ago. Americans not only continue to view the Democratic Party more favorably than the Republican Party in general terms, but they also choose the Democratic party as the preferred party for maintaining the nation’s economic prosperity. And, in a departure from recent history, Americans see the Democrats as the political party better able to protect the country from terrorism.
That last bit about terrorism is really a caffeinated reversal of affairs that started before last year’s elections. For decades, it was a given that voters gave Republicans higher marks on protecting the nation than they did Democrats.
No more. True, the Democratic lead there isn’t huge, only five points, with a margin of error of plus or minus three.
But given the traditional Republican advantage on the national security issue, it’s a fairly dramatic turn of events. Republicans had a 19-point lead on the issue in five years ago.
Gallup notes that voter attitudes about the GOP on security strongly track overall views about Republicans which in turn tracks with voter views of President Bush. The president’s unpopularity is really hurting his party with most voter groups except those in the base.
If these numbers continue to trend like this, the Republican general election campaigns for the White House and Congress are likely to be Bush-free zones, with the president only going to those rubiest of red places on the political map where he will drive up the base vote and not energize anti-Bush voters.
In other words, the 2008 campaign, especially for the White House, will look a lot like the 200 campaign in which Vice President Al Gore’s campaign used President Bill Clinton sparingly, mainly in places where his campaigning would excite the Democratic base without serving as a spur to drive Bush’s voters to the polls.