Here’s an interesting summary from the Christian Science Monitor of recent polling that demonstrates recent Democratic gains in voter preference, including a new survey from the Pew Research Center (which many conservatives disdain but I find most useful). The key passage:

… [S]ome of the key trends in national attitude that helped fuel the Republican resurgence of the mid-1990s have moderated, according to Pew Research. The proportion of Americans who say they support “traditional social values” has declined eight percentage points during that period. Strong personal religious commitment has also modestly declined, according to Pew. Meanwhile, there’s been an increase in the percentage of respondents who say the government should help needy people – from 41 percent in 1994 to 54 percent today. Yet in political terms, the Democratic Party’s gains from these trends remain soft, say analysts. The party’s core supporters have not necessarily increased. What’s happened is that the share of self-described US independents who “lean” Democratic has risen from 12 percent in 2002 to 17 percent in the most recent Pew survey. “The survey suggests that even these Democratic gains reflect independents’ dissatisfaction with the Republican Party more than any greater liking for the Democrats,” concludes the Pew analysis.

Well, yes, but GOP folks shouldn’t try to downplay their challenges by saying, essentially, that it isn’t that consumers love Coke. They just don’t like the taste of Pepsi.

Right. So what?