GOP leads on several issues, closes the gap on others

The recent Rasmussen survey on partisan trust on major U.S. policy issues provides some surprising insight and demonstrates that the GOP has narrowed its credibility gap with the Democrats substantially on several issues. Shockingly, on the issue of the economy, where the Dems held an advantage for the last few years and a double-digit advantage leading into the 2008 November election, the Republicans only trail the Democrats by 3 points, 42 to 45 percent, essentially a tie when you factor in the margin of error. Americans now trust the Republicans more on the issues of taxes, abortion, and immigration (the Democrats had held single digit leads on all three of these issues for the last several months) and Republicans increased their advantage on national security to an 8 point lead. As the new administration's lurch to the left has led to the enactment of new policy on social issues and implementation of massive spending, it seems that the American public has responded by moving more towards the GOP on these issues, probably as a response to the Dems moving too far too the left and overreaching.

Unbelievaly, the GOP is now tied with the Democrats on the issue of social security, a pet issue and advantage for the Democrats for the last 3 decades. Democrats only hold a two point advantage on Iraq and a 2 point advantage on government ethics (the follies and corruption scandals of congressional Democrats like Charlie Rangel and the failure of Obama appointees to pay their taxes probably contributed to this new polling dynamic). Republicans have even managed to narrow their deficit on reliably Democratic issues such as healthcare and education to the single digits.

What does all this mean? While Obama remains relatively popular, congressional Democrats are not (as witnessed by this poll on the issues and the approval ratings of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi). Americans seem to be tiring of one-party rule and 2010 could be a very good year for Republicans, especially in the House of Representatives.