Are Democrats too liberal?

What happened

A Gallup poll found that the percentage of Americans who describe the Democratic Party as "too liberal" jumped from 39 percent last year to 46 percent this summer. (Gallup)

What the commentators said

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Democrats must be concerned to see how clearly the country identifies "Democrats with the dreaded L-word," said Michael McAuliff in the New York Daily News. But one Gallup poll saying that more Americans have decided Democrats are too liberal isn't "exactly a clarion of doom for the Dems." Still, it's a rare source of cheer for the battered Republicans.

That's the price Democrats pay for being back in power, said Peter Roff in U.S. News & World Report. Republicans may think that their job of rebranding their troubled party will be easy if voters become worried that Democrats are too liberal. But Gallup also found that the number of people who think Republicans are too conservative is unchanged at 43 percent. So the numbers don't exactly give them the upper hand against a "rock star" like President Obama.

Times will only get tougher for Democrats as Americans sour on life in "Nancy Pelosi's America," said Chris Horner in National Review. When, thanks to the stimulus bill, we all get "the biggest tax increase in U.S. history," people will realize how the Democrats doled out billions of dollars in taxpayer money to buy support from "special interest groups and their politicians" to ramrod their expensive agenda through Congress.