Image of Democratic Party at all-time low

From Gallup:

Americans' favorable rating of the Democratic Party dropped to 41% in a late March USA Today/Gallup poll, the lowest point in the 18-year history of this measure. Favorable impressions of the Republican Party are now at 42%, thus closing the gap between the two parties' images that has prevailed for the past four years.

Gallup last measured party images in late August/early September of last year. At that point, the Democratic Party enjoyed an 11-point favorable image advantage over the Republican Party. Now, the favorable ratings of the two parties are essentially tied.

The images of the two major parties have particular significance in a midterm election year. For example, the favorable rating of the Democratic Party exceeded that of the Republican Party by 52% to 37% just prior to the 2006 midterm elections, in which the Democrats gained 31 House seats.

The current favorability rating of the Demcrats is five points below its all time low of 46 percent, which it descended to twice in 2005. In contrast, the GOP record-chill is 31 percent, it sank there shortly after the Republican-held House voted to impeach Bill Clinton.

Decades of unrelenting mainstream media attacks against the Republicans have taken their toll against the GOP, which is why it's a rarity when it exceeds the Democrats in favorability measurements.

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