Tie McCain to the Republican Party: The Public Hates Them

by: Daniel De Groot

Wed Jun 25, 2008 at 23:55

I particularly like questions 24 and 25, so here they are in detail (with some attempt at formatting and yes my colour choices suck)

Q24/25 Do you have a positive or negative feeling about the (24)Democratic/(25)Republican Party? (IF POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE) Is it very or only somewhat (positive/negative)?

Democratic Party
Answer	REG	DEM	IND	REP	LIB	MOD	CONS	MALE	FEMALE
Hvn't hrd enough	1	1	1				1
Positive (net)	51	85	35	15	80	52	27	44	57
Very Positive	26	52	11	3	44	27	10	15	36
Somewhat Positive	25	33	24	12	36	25	17	29	21
Negative (net)	30	9	32	64	9	26	52	37	24
Very Negative	14	3	16	31	2	8	30	19	10
Somwhat negative	16	6	16	32	7	18	23	18	14
Neither	15	5	27	13	9	18	15	17	13
Don't know	4	1	5	8	1	4	5	2	5
Republican Party
Answer	REG	DEM	IND	REP	LIB	MOD	CONS	MALE	FEMALE
Hvn't hrd enough	1	1	1			1	1
Positive (net)	29	8	26	70	9	20	52	33	25
Very Positive	8	2	3	24	3	5	14	7	8
Somewhat Positive	21	6	23	46	6	15	38	26	17
Negative (net)	53	84	41	15	80	57	30	47	57
Very Negative	28	53	16	2	47	31	12	20	34
Somwhat negative	25	30	25	13	33	26	19	27	23
Neither	14	7	28	8	9	18	11	16	12
Don't know	4	1	4	6	1	5	6	3	5

More observations inside.

1) Overall, Dems are at 51/30 positive/negative.  GOP is at 29/53.  Less people like them than dislike the dems, and more people hate them than like the Dems.  You could stop there and be pretty satisfied that if you're a Democrat running for office, you should proudly wear that label and what's more, frequently mention your opponent is a Republican on the trail, in literature and ads.  Use phrases like "My Republican opponent", "Just what we would expect a Republican to say", "Voted with his Republican colleages X% of the time!"

2) Democrats are more positive about the Democratic party, and more negative about the Republican party than Republicans are in vice-versa.  85% of Democrats say positive versus only 70% of Republicans.  Of the 70, only 24% (less than half) said "very positive."  They even hate themselves!  Republicans in the poll were twice as likely to say they had positive feelings about the Democratic party.  

3) Liberals are less enthusiastic about the Democratic party than are Democrats.  Makes sense given the record of this Congress perhaps.  If they'd asked me, I would have said "somewhat positive" too to be honest.

4) Dems winning both men and women.  Women by a lot.  Just wait until we hang John McCain's views on Roe V. Wade and SCHIP around his neck for them to see.  

5) Dems win the all coveted independents too.  The numbers seem a bit low and I don't know what happened in this poll because it actually has McCain winning the independents they sampled 36O, 44M.  So either all the Democratic leaning independents have joined the Democratic party or perhaps the polling sample was top heavy with Republican leaning independents.  Either way, even if Obama isn't winning the polled sample of Indies here, the Democratic party itself is.

I think the message from this is pretty clear as far as the Presidential race is concerned.  Don't just tie McCain to Bush (which he can weakly try to run from), tie him to his own party.  Let's see him try to deny that.  In my last diary some noted Obama doesn't list his party affiliation, but neither does McCain.  

For Congressional candidates, as I demonstrated the other day, Republicans get this and are hiding their party affiliation.  Don't let them get away with that.  If you're too craven to admit to your own party then at least remind voters about your opponent's.