Michael Barone utilizes his number-crunching expertise for a brief new Washington Examiner analysis:
From the Gallup organization comes the news that 49% of Americans believe that the Democrats are ?too liberal.? This is only slightly below the all-time high of 50%, recorded in 1994, when Democrats suffered their worst defeat in congressional elections since 1946. In addition, that 49% is significantly larger than the 43% who believe that the Republicans are ?too conservative.? As Gallup analyst Jeffrey Jones puts it, ?Currently, by 49% to 40%, more Americans perceive the Democratic Party as too liberal than say the Republican Party is too conservative, giving the Republicans an advantage in an important election year.?
Among self-identified Democrats the percentage identifying their party as too liberal has not changed significantly since 2008, but the percentage identifying Democrats as too conservative has risen slightly, from 6% to 14%. That suggests that a certain number of left-leaning Democrats may not be motivated to vote in 2010. Among self-identified Independents the percentage identifying Democrats as too liberal has increased from 40% in 2008 to 52% in 2010. That?s in line with the many findings that Independents are much less favorable to Democrats and closer to Republicans? positions than they were in 2008.
