Pew Center Shows Short Term Gains For Republicans Among Centrists

A national survey released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press had some interesting findings. Their studies showed Republican gains post 9/11 over security issues, but, according to Andrew Kohut, the nonpartisan research center's director, these changes might not help Republicans long term.

"The landscape coming out of the 2004 election favored Republicans, but there's no guarantee that Republicans have solidified their hold on things," Kohut said. "It isn't structural change."

The study showed increased gains for Republicans in the center, with these people having "a highly favorable opinion of President Bush personally and support for an aggressive military stance against potential enemies." Their findings would argue against those who criticized John Kerry for attempting to attract more voters from the center.

Perhaps one clue that the Republicans have not obtained the permanent majority the have been speaking of is that when whether they would like to have Bush run for a third term if that was not prohibited by the Constitution, 27% said yes. In comparison, 43% said they would like Bill Clinton to serve a third term as President.