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Poll: GOP Losing Edge on Foreign Policy Issues
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Mar 17, 2006 10:51am |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, March 17, 2006 04:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Morning Edition, March 17, 2006
A new poll of likely voters finds that President Bush and his party no longer have the advantage on issues of foreign policy and national security, which they used to dominate.
The poll, conducted for NPR by a Republican and a Democratic pollster, suggests that the ongoing instability in Iraq, the Dubai ports deal, job outsourcing and other global issues in the news lately appear to be weighing heavily on voters' minds in this midterm election year.
Republican pollster Glen Bolger says that, from his perspective, the results are a "bunch of ugly numbers."
The poll found the president's approval rating at 39 percent. Of the 58 percent of respondents who said they disapprove, a whopping 45 percent "disapprove strongly." When asked what pollsters call the generic ballot question -- "If the election were held today, would you vote for the Democrat or the Republican candidate?" -- those surveyed favored Democrats by one of the largest margins in decades, 52 percent to 37 percent. (That's a bigger margin than Republicans enjoyed just before they captured the House in 1994).
"This is not the only poll that is showing significant problems for Republicans on the generic ballot, significant problems for the president," Bolger says.
"We're in a hole, and we're at a point where we've got to start digging our way out, as opposed to digging deeper."
It's not uncommon to see polls where Democrats beat Republicans on domestic issues, such as the economy and jobs, health care and Social Security. But in this poll, when asked which party they trust more on issues such as the Iraq war, foreign ownership of U.S. ports and attention to homeland security, majorities chose the Democrats. Only on the question of Iranian nuclear weapons do the president and his party come out ahead. |
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