Pew Poll: Bush A "Drag" On Republicans

Who do people think can save America? Two polls from the Pew Research Center for People and the Press and Fox News/Opinion Dynamics overwhelmingly say it's Democrats.

Respondents said they preferred the Democrats on 10 of 12 issues the Pew survey identified. Democrats had their largest edges over the Republicans on the environment (32 percentage points) and health care (22 points).

And despite the GOP’s consistent efforts to brand the Democrats as advocates of increased government spending and taxes, Democrats also held advantages among the poll’s respondents on reducing the deficit (12 points) and taxes (11 points). Republicans held advantages on the issues of fighting crime (7 points) and terrorism (16 points).

Respondents to the Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll gave Democrats the edge over Republicans on eight of 12 issues that survey selected. The largest Democratic advantages came on health care (23 points) and the federal deficit (20 points), while Republicans enjoyed their largest leads on terrorism (14 points) and family values (10 points).

And President Bush?

“President Bush’s unpopularity has become a drag on his party’s prospects in the fall,” said the Pew analysis, which pointed to a specific finding: 31 percent of respondents said they consider their vote for Congress as a vote against Bush, while 18 percent said they consider their vote as supporting the president. A 47 percent plurality said their views of Bush would not influence their votes for Congress.