Republicans have moved ahead of Democrats by 48% to 44% among registered voters in the latest update on Gallup's generic congressional ballot for the 2010 House elections, after trailing by six points in July and two points last month.It's fixable. But, it requires boldness and leadership. Democrats being Democrats, instead of acting boldly, they will probably become captive to those who want to do less. We already started to see movement in that direction last week when Democrats on the Hill started backing away from key Democratic positions. My sense from the 2008 elections was that American people wanted leadership and wanted Obama and Congress to actually solve problems. Based on the these latest Gallup findings, that's not what they're seeing. And, the professional Democrats, the big dollar consultants types, will start their incessant fretting, which means Democratic leaders could become even more milquetoast. That will just end up annoying Independents and demoralizing the Democratic base.
The Nov. 5-8 update comes just after Republican victories in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections, which saw Republicans replace Democrats as governors of those states.
As was the case in last Tuesday's gubernatorial elections, independents are helping the Republicans' cause. In the latest poll, independent registered voters favor the Republican candidate by 52% to 30%
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