Two major media polls this week show Americans are not satisfied with the political status quo. Analysts disagree, though, on what this means for the major political parties.
The Wall Street Journal and NBC teamed up to take the public's pre-election pulse in a poll released Thursday. The Journal article says "Republicans haven't persuaded a dissatisfied American public that their stewardship is succeeding. But the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll suggests how they might survive mideterm elections anyway." The poll "finds that candidates will be facing a public that has grown increasingly pessimistic" according to MSNBC's summary.
The president's approval rating went up slightly to 39% in the poll but 60% percent say the country is headed in the wrong direction. And 60% also don't approve of Congress's performance, which is where a National Public Radio poll delves a little deeper.
NPR's bipartisan poll focused on the nation's most competitive Congressional districts. NPR says that in these districts, voters favored the GOP by 12 points in 2004. The new survey gives Democrats a six point advantage about 100 days out from this year's election.
Programming note: Peter Hart, one of the pollsters used in the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, will join Frank Luntz at NCSL's 2006 Annual Meeting in Nashville next month and analyze more election data.
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