Poll: McCain holds own against Democrats

NEW YORK, May 1 (UPI) -- Less than one-third of U.S. poll respondents indicated a favorable view of the Republican Party, the lowest level since Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll began.

While 27 percent viewed the Republican Party favorably, its presumptive nominee, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is running even with Democratic Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., results from The Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll released Thursday indicated.

McCain is in a statistical dead-heat against either Democrat, pollsters said. Obama leads McCain 46 percent to 43 percent, and Clinton has a 45 percent-to-44 percent edge.

That's one bright spot for the GOP, the survey indicated. U.S. President George Bush's overall job performance sunk to a low. Just 27 percent approved his overall performance and 21 percent said they thought he handled the weak economy well, the poll indicated.

Seventy-three percent of respondents said they thought the country was heading down the wrong path while 15 percent said the United States was going in the right direction.

The survey of 1,006 registered voters was conducted Friday through Monday, and has a sampling error of 3.1 percentage points.