Reversal of fortunes for GOP

President Bush's dream of leaving a Republican majority as his political legacy is slipping from his grasp.

A new poll released Thursday confirms that the country's political landscape has turned sharply against Bush's party and toward the Democrats on such bellwether issues as the use of military force, religion, affirmative action and homosexuality.

"It's going in the other direction," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, which released the survey. "The Republicans have really suffered a number of setbacks. It's not going toward a Democratic majority. But there's no more progress toward a Republican majority."

"But Democrats shouldn't start popping the champagne yet," said Steven Schier, a political scientist at Carleton College in Minnesota.

"This group that leans Democratic is still very much up for grabs, depending on candidates and events."

A durable political majority -- like the one Republicans had for decades after the Civil War or that Franklin D. Roosevelt built for the Democrats in the 1930s and 1940s -- might be a quaint notion in an era in which a third of voters refuse to align with either party for more than one election.

Today, 50 percent of Americans call themselves Democrats or lean that way, and 35 percent call themselves Republicans or lean that way.

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Fewer Pledge Allegiance to the GOP

Public allegiance to the Republican Party has plunged during George W. Bush's presidency, as attitudes have edged away from some of the conservative values that fueled GOP political victories, a major survey has found.

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