A new Zogby poll finds that almost half of the county’s likely voters are dissatisfied with the current crop of Presidential candidates.
It also finds that more voters would be unlikely to vote for Democrats Senator Hillary Clinton than Senator Barack Obama. And presumptive GOP nominee Senator John McCain by a slim margin is the candidate they would least likely never support. Yet, McCain faces some of the worst news: Democrats are happier than Republicans about their choices.
Meanwhile, members of Congress shouldn’t be smiling at all: a new Gallup poll finds Congress’ approval ratings are at a historic low.
Zogby’s findings are indicative of the fact that both the Democratic and Republican parties have splits which presumably will heal by Labor Day:
Nearly half of likely voters – 48% – are not satisfied with the current candidates for president, with Republicans and conservative voters the most unhappy about their likely candidate choices in November, a new nationwide Zogby Interactive poll shows.
In what could spell bad news for the presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, an overwhelming 86% of self-described “very conservative” voters said they are displeased with the current presidential candidates – and 65% of these voters said they are very unsatisfied. The vast majority of conservatives (76%) and Republicans (76%) also expressed significant dissatisfaction with the current candidates, as did more than half of political independents (55%).
You can see the big job both nominees (no matter who he or she may be) will face:
Even as some likely voters express dissatisfaction with the current candidates, many have already made up their minds for whom they won’t vote – 49% would never vote for Hillary Clinton, while 44% won’t vote for Barack Obama and 42% would never cast a ballot for John McCain. The numbers have changed slightly since a Zogby Interactive poll in October 2007, which found 50% would never vote for Clinton, 45% would never vote for McCain, and 37% would never vote for Obama.
In this latest survey, 75% of Democrats would never vote for McCain, but 22% also said they would never vote for fellow Democrat Clinton, and 13% said the same of Obama. One in 10 Republicans would never vote for McCain, and the vast majority is dead-set against voting for Obama (78%) and Clinton (74%). More than half (53%) of political independents would never vote for Clinton, compared to 42% who said the same of Obama and (38%) of McCain.
And Congress? It is now emulating President George Bush in setting records for the number of Americans that feel it is doing a lousy job. Gallup reports:
Approval of Congress has dipped below 20% for only the fourth time in the 34 years Gallup has asked Americans to rate the job Congress is doing. Today’s 18% score, based on a May 8-11 Gallup Poll, matches the record lows Gallup recorded in August 2007 and March 1992.
Why the low numbers? Part of it is that Democrats are deeply disssatisfied:
One reason Congress is doing so poorly in the court of public opinion is that rank-and-file Democrats are providing no support cushion for the Democratic-controlled institution. In fact, Democrats are about as likely to approve of Congress as are Republicans: 20% of Republicans approve, versus 16% of Democrats.
Not only is that true today, but it has been the pattern in Gallup’s monthly approval ratings of Congress since December 2007. Prior to that — for the first 10 months of the new Democratic majority in Congress — Democrats tended to express slightly higher approval than Republicans, averaging seven points higher. However, by contrast, during most of the Republican-led Congress from 2000 to 2006, Republicans’ approval of Congress was substantially higher than Democrats’.
So it’s clear this is going to be a “change” election, but voters aren’t wildly enthusiastic about the choices they now have to put the U.S. on a different path. And unhappy Democrats:will they be willing to vote Republican if they don’t like their Democratic represenatives? No sign of that.
But it’s clear the Democratic and Republican nominees — and Congress — have a lot of fence mending to do and that voters are clamoring to see some changes…from both parties.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.