Down In The Dumps

Make no mistake: the GOP has a long road ahead of it.

NEW YORK-Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton now holds a slight lead over top Republican Rudy Giuliani for the first time in a hypothetical 2008 presidential matchup. In fact, to varying degrees, Clinton and fellow Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama beat every Republican candidate they are tested against in the latest FOX News Poll.

Opinion Dynamics Corp. conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News from July 17 to July 18. The poll has a 3-point error margin.

President Bush can do little to give Republicans a boost as his own ratings remain dismal. Today, 32 percent of Americans say they approve of the job Bush is doing and 61 percent disapprove. His current approval is just 1 point higher than his record-low 31 percent approval rating received last month (June 26-27).

Aye, and there's the rub. Presiding over a party that lost both houses of Congress and blowing all of your political capitol in the process is not a smart thing to do in the face of an upcoming, pivotol election. But they have no one but themselves to blame.