I am among those small-i independents who are VERY disappointed in Congressional Democratic leadership and legislative progress. I wouldn't vote for Republicans instead (given their current postures) - more likely I'd vote for 3d party candidates. But everything hinges on who specifically is on the ballot i get to use.

I'm not convinced that a poll 1 year ahead that isn't tied to specific candidates has any meaning at all. If there is one, it could be a measure of satisfaction with current trends, with blame or credit going to whomever is running things.

Polls that ask specific questions - like do you support increasing our current military work in Afghanistan, do you support a public insurance option in health care reform - those polls would be more useful

Who one might vote AGAINST often reflects negative opinion about what the party in power has been up to lately. And it can change in a flash as the behavior changes.

It seems to me this poll probably reflects more of that kind of anti-incumbent feeling than support for Republicans, and should not be taken very seriously, particularly as the margins are statistically negligible.

But if unemployment continues to rise or stays high, if taxes and/or debt increase, if health care choices become limited or costs of plans increase, and if utility bills start reflecting cap and trade penalties...this margin will certainly increase.

And the next round of anti-incumbent preferences will begin.

How meaningful are "national" polls like this nowadays? A lot of respondents could be answering from districts that are unlikely to switch parties. It would be interesting to see results from selected swing districts to see how things are going down where actual shifts could happen.

Mr. Iacono's comment points to something deeply unfortunate: That the current Republican strategy of blocking progress on our critical pressing problems by any means necessary, making conditions as bad as possible for our country, dividing the people to make ourselves ungovernable, is a very sound strategy for the attempt to regain power and therefore one that will continue as far as the eye can see. Woe unto us.

Just for yuks I thought that I would borrow a quote from one of the more frequent posters....

snip//"Pffft.
[Ain't polls great]?

If one comes out with news that gets your dauber down, all you have to do is wait
until one pops up to float your boat again."//snip

It seemed both timely and appropriate.
Tip of the hat to Swiftee....

I think this poll would matter a lot if the Republicans were going to run any kind of near normal candidates. But based on what happened in upstate New York during the recent election, they'll probably throw the moderates to the wolves and lose, standing instead with a hate-filled and fear-filled hyper-conservative bunch hat want a federal government prepared only for war and plague.

What's tough about continuing to support the Dems in Congress is the inexcusable writing of health care "reform" legislation in ways that benefit private corporate interests INSTEAD of the interests of ordinary people.

There are some reforms, of course, but the basic change that should take place is the one that would remove the power of insurance and drug companies to raise their prices (and profits) year after year without providing additional value. We will NOT see cost reduction unless the government forces it in this area. (Single payer comes to mind.)

Offsetting this are obvious improvements in our relations with other countries (gotta get better on Latin America, though, and the Middle East, and give up Africom) and at least some reductions in military weapons systems.

None of these observations will lead me to vote for a Republican.

I beg to differ with Bernice. The trouble with the Democrats is that they have Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid as the faces of both the Congress and the Senate. Except for the bay area I can not see Pelosi winning with her (and I'll be generous here) left of center politics in most any other other location in the country.. As for Reid.. enough said...

The Democrats could have had a sweet deal if they had not veered too far left. I do not believe that is what the country voted for when they and I voted for Obama.

The congress has made the President look bad with the lack of cooperation in the initial start up with the health care bill. The stimulus was unavoidable. With the economy and the lack of capacity under utilization of the work force some entity had to step into the breech. The private sector certainly did not have the wherewithal to do it. It would have been irresponsible for the government to not have stepped in.

I realize that the winner has the trump card as far as elections go but I believe that they fed at the trough in that regard. Perception is everything in politics and they (Congress) were not sensitive enough to that.

My hope is that the president will turn more to the center and leave the left to figure it out on their own.[elections] If he is able to work with the moderates on both sides and whittle down the deficit and reduce spending (that perception thing) and be seen as a more moderate/liberal if there is such a thing. Then Obama will come out of this like Reagan did. After all Reagan suffered high unemployment in his term as well. As long as the liberal wing of the party is not enabled by the president he will easily cruise to a second tour in office.