Americans Losing Confidence in Current Leadership;
McCain a Strong Candidate Despite Low Approval Ratings for BushBy Jon Cohen and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 12, 2008; 6:34 PMAmericans are gloomier about the direction of the country than at any point since 1992, and Democrats have matched their biggest advantage in 25 years as the party better able to deal with the nation's main problems, according to a
new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Despite more than eight in 10 now saying the country is headed in the wrong direction and growing disaffection with the Republican Party, Sen. John McCain, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, remains competitive in a general election matchup with Sen. Barack Obama, the favorite for the Democratic nomination, and runs almost even with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Those findings indicate that McCain continues to elude some of the anger aimed at his party and at President Bush, whose own approval dipped to an all-time low in Post-ABC polling. Maintaining a separate identity will be key to McCain's chances of winning the White House in November. Overall, Democrats enjoy a 21-point advantage over Republicans as the party best-equipped to handle the nation's problems.
As the Democratic race nears the end of its primary-caucus season, with the next round of voting set for Tuesday in West Virginia, this new national poll shows Obama with a 12-point advantage over Clinton as the preferred choice for the nomination.
More than six in 10 Democrats now say Obama is the one with the better shot at winning in November, and while Clinton retains her wide advantage as the better experienced, for the first time Obama has the edge on the question of who is the "stronger leader."
But there is no groundswell of public pressure for her to quit the race, despite trailing the Illinois senator in pledged delegates, popular vote and now superdelegates. Nearly two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said Clinton should stay in the race.
One reason is that few Democrats appear concerned that the protracted nomination battle between Clinton and Obama will hurt the party's chances in November. Only 27 percent said they believed the lengthy battle had done the party long-term damage. Most said the long contest either has had no impact on the party's prospects (56 percent) or that it has been helpful (15 percent).
And most Democrats said they are confident the party would be able to rally around Obama should he end up as the party's nominee, although fewer than half said they are very confident. African Americans are somewhat more confident than are whites, and nearly a quarter of Clinton supporters expressed doubt that the party would find unity once the nomination fight is settled.
In hypothetical general election head-to-heads, Obama leads McCain by slim 51 to 44 percent margin, with the public split 49 percent for Clinton to McCain's 46 percent. Against McCain, Obama does better than Clinton with African Americans, those with college degrees or greater education and among younger voters. Clinton, however, draws more support than does Obama against McCain among older white voters, white women and whites with family incomes under $50,000 a year.
