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Poll: Public Opinion of Democratic Party at All-Time Low

CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.

Americans are dissatisfied with both major political parties, but the public's approval of the Democratic Party is at its lowest level ever, a new CBS News poll shows.

Favorable views of the Democratic Party dropped 20 points in the past year to 37 percent, according to the poll, conducted May 20 - 24. Last month, the party's favorability rating stood at 42 percent.

Fifty-four percent of Americans have a negative view of the Democrats, the poll shows.

Republicans have a similarly low favorability rating at 33 percent. That figure, however, is up from 28 percent - the historic low the party received last June. Fifty-five percent of Americans have a negative view of the Republican Party.

Seventy-seven percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job - the highest ever in a CBS News poll.

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Read the Complete Poll


This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1054 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone May 20-24, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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