Opinion: Breaking Poll News: Dems OK with candidates; GOP, uh, no

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Yeh, yeh, so the new Times poll out this minute shows Hillary Clinton surging ahead nationally and John McCain creeping into a Republican lead.

But inside those numbers, how do members of the two parties really feel about their candidate choices as Super Tuesday (Feb. 5) rapidly approaches?

The numbers from the new poll, conducted Friday through Tuesday among 1,312 registered voters, show the Democrats are pretty darned happy with their narrowing field of candidates, which includes John Edwards, but is mainly Clinton and Barack Obama.

Fully 76% of Democratic voters were satisfied with their....

candidates -- 44% very satisfied and 31% somewhat satisfied. And only 11% were dissatisfied -- 4% very dissatisfied and 7% somewhat.

On the other hand, among Republicans, who still have more candidates to choose from, only 53% are satisfied with their field of choices -- 21% very satisfied and 32% somewhat.

On the other hand of the Republicans’ other hand, 11% are very dissatisfied with their candidates and 13% are somewhat dissatisfied.

This party disparity has also been reflected in some turnout figures so far this primary season with twice the number of Democratic caucus-goers showing up in Iowa and Nevada as Republicans, figures indicating political enthusiasm this year that one former aide to President Bush calls ‘ugly.’

--Andrew Malcolm