Democrats Lose Advantage to GOP in Poll After Pro-Abortion Health Care Vote
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 23, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new Gallup poll is making the rounds today showing Democrats have squandered their advantage in partisan support thanks to the pro-abortion health care bill they railroaded through Congress. The poll shows Republicans could be in store for huge election victories in November.
During the first quarter of 2010, 46% of Americans identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic, while 45% identified as or leaned Republican, Gallup noted.
Those results, based on aggregated data from Gallup polls conducted from January to March, show the closest party divide since 2005.
Democrats enjoyed double-digit advantages in party support in 11 of 12 quarters from the second quarter of 2006 to the first quarter of 2009, Gallup indicated.
But Gallup says, "The advantage in public support the Democratic Party built up during the latter part of the Bush administration and the early part of the Obama administration has all but disappeared."
"By the end of last year, the Democratic advantage had shrunk to five points (47% to 42%), and it narrowed further in the most recent quarter," Gallup noted.
With most Democrats favoring abortion — and even some pro-life Democrats voting for the pro-abortion health care bill — and with most Republicans taking a pro-life position — all Republicans voted against the bill — pro-life advocates could be poised for big gains in November.
There is the potential that Republicans could control one or both houses of Congress after the elections. That would change the leadership of Congress from pro-abortion to pro-life and would allow pro-life legislation to place stronger limits on abortion to receive a debate and vote.
Ed Morrissey, a writer at the conservative Hot Air blog, says the numbers are bad news for Democrats because polling typically shows inflated results for them compared to actual election results.
"Democrats have lost almost all of a 13-point gap among all adults in just a year — a number that was already inflated in favor of Democrats. After all, the gap Gallup detected in 2008 was actually fourteen points, but Barack Obama won office by just half of that number in the national popular vote," he writes.
Morrissey says Republicans are doing better because independents are leaning their way.
"That counted a great deal of independent support as well as some limited Republican voter crossover, too. Independents are now crossing back over the other way, which will make the midterms a lonely ride for Democrats," he said.
"That would tend to indicate that in practical terms, GOP identification has already surpassed the Democrats. Rasmussen’s last poll in March put the GOP down by less than 3 points, and that was before the passage of ObamaCare. This survey indicates that rather than seeing a bump for getting their health-care overhaul passed into law, Democrats may have instead thrown gasoline on a fire that was already burning out of control," he added.
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