After years of political dominance, Republican voters now view their party as divided and say they are not satisfied with the choice of candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
In a survey that brought to life the party’s anxieties about keeping the White House, Republicans said they were concerned that their party had drifted from the principles of Ronald Reagan, its most popular figure of the past 50 years.
Forty percent of Republicans said they expected Democrats to take control of the White House next year, compared with 46 percent who said they believed a Republican would win. Just 12 percent of Democrats said they thought the opposing party would win the White House.
Other findings show that, while a majority support the war in Iraq and Bush's troop surge, only 39% of GOP voters thought that a candidate who was committed to staying in Iraq could win -- the position of GOP frontrunners.
One respondent, Randy Miller of KS, summed up the mood among republican voters; "There is going to be so much antiwar in the news media that there is no way the Republicans are going to win. The Democrats will win because of the war. I think the Republicans just won’t vote."
