Public grows more cynical about politics, poll finds

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Cynicism about American politics has risen sharply in recent months, according to a new poll that finds growing numbers of voters feel the country is heading in the wrong direction and that fewer think politicians can fix the problems.

More than two-thirds of likely voters (71 percent) say their member of Congress puts party politics ahead of them, according to the latest George Washington University Battleground 2008 Poll released yesterday.

The bipartisan poll found that 70 percent of voters said the country is on the wrong track, with 58 percent feeling strongly about it. Only 32 percent of voters think their children will be better off than they are now — a drop of seven percentage points since January.

"Cynicism may be the hot new political trend the politicians are going to have to fight against," said Brian Nienaber, vice president of the Tarrance Group, a Republican research team. "People hold such a cynical view of how things are run in Washington that they're going to have to try doubly hard."

Eighty-nine percent of Democrats say the country is headed the wrong way, as do nearly half (49 percent) of Republican voters, and most of that gloom stems from the failures of President Bush and the war in Iraq, Democratic analyst Celinda Lake said.

"I think the president is more than just a lame duck, but from this poll, it appears the President is a dead weight," Ms. Lake said.

Overall, 61 percent of voters disapprove of Mr. Bush's job performance as president, the poll found.

Despite widespread disapproval of the Republican president, Ms. Lake said Democrats shouldn't get their hopes up yet, because "the Democrats look good, frankly, only relative to the Republicans."

The most frequent criticism of Democrats "is that they gave in to President Bush on the war in Iraq," Ms. Lake said.

The poll, which surveyed 1,000 registered likely voters nationwide July 15 to 18, said 52 percent of voters disapprove of the Democrats' performance in Congress after their first six months in the majority since winning control in November. Yet a near majority — 49 percent — said they'd vote for the Democrats if the presidential election were held tomorrow, compared with 38 percent who said they'd vote Republican.

Among the 2008 presidential hopefuls, the Battleground poll shows that former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani "remains the most electable candidate for Republicans — even if [former Sen.] Fred Thompson decides to get into the race," Mr. Nienaber said.

Voters are "still getting to know" some of the other Republicans, including Mr. Thompson and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

With 16 months left before the 2008 general election, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York remains the most recognized Democratic presidential candidate, the poll found, but Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has a 59 percent favorable impression among voters compared with Mrs. Clinton's 50 percent. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina was rated favorably by 53 percent of voters in the poll.