Poll: Americans cool to GOP policies

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Americans remain cool to Republican policy ideas despite the drop in Democratic President Barack Obama's approval ratings, a national poll indicates.

Fifty-two percent of people surveyed in the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll said they believed Obama's policies would move the country in the right direction, results released Friday showed. An equal percentage of respondents said they felt the same about the policies of Democrats in Congress.

Forty-three percent of respondents said Republicans policies would move the country in the right direction, while nearly half said congressional Republicans would shift the country to the wrong direction.

"Barack Obama's drop in the polls has not made the Republican Party more popular than the Democrats," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.

The survey also suggested Americans think the Democrats rather than the Republicans would do a better job handling the economy, Medicare, healthcare and Afghanistan. Poll results showed the two parties were tied on how they'd address taxes and the federal budget deficit. Republicans held an advantage on terrorism.

The CNN-Opinion Research Corp. surveyed 1,010 adults by telephone was conducted Aug. 28-31, with 1,010 Americans. The overall margin of error is 3 percentage points.