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The Democrats' unhappiness is even more evident when contrasted with the positive feelings Republicans have for their party. Fully 57% of Republicans believe the GOP is doing an excellent or good job of advocating traditional party positions like cutting taxes and promoting conservative social values. In May 2002, 55% of Republicans gave the party high marks for standing up for core principles.

Among Democrats, liberals have become especially unhappy with the party's performance in standing up for traditional principles, and this has led to a large ideological gap within the party over this issue. In May 2001, near the beginning of Bush's term, roughly the same numbers of liberal and conservative Democrats expressed satisfaction with how well the party was doing in this area (48% of liberals, 45% of conservatives). But today, just 31% of liberal Democrats say the party has done an excellent or good job of advocating traditional positions. [...]

Since July, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has made somewhat larger gains than the other candidates. His name recognition is up nine points (from 37% to 46%), and among those who have heard of Dean, 41% say there is a "good" or "some" chance they would vote for him, up from 32% in July. But Dean continues to trail Sen. Joe Lieberman (50%), Sen. John Kerry (47%) and Rep. Dick Gephardt (45%) in terms of potential support. Most voters (54%), including 55% of Democrats and Democratic leaners, have still not heard of Dean.Lieberman, Gephardt and Kerry have much greater name recognition, among all voters and among Democrats. Candidate visibility and support - as well as other opinions measured in this survey - did not change significantly over the course of the polling period.

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