Yesterday, Pew released a poll showing the Democrats with "distinct advantages" going into this year's midterm elections.

The bullet points (summarizing their press release):

* Voters continue to say they favor the Democratic candidate in their district, by a 51% to 39% margin.

* The level of enthusiasm about voting among Democrats is unusually high, and is atypically low among Republicans. In fact, Democrats now hold a voter enthusiasm advantage that is the mirror image of the GOP's edge in voter zeal leading up to the 1994 midterm election. [46% of Democratic voters say they are more enthusiastic about voting than usual, compared with just 30% of Republicans. In October 1994, Republicans held a comparable advantage on this measure (by 45%-30%)]

* Public anger with Congress continues to rise, and anti-incumbent sentiment has reached new highs.

* Increased Democratic intensity is mostly driven by anger toward President Bush and Republican leaders, not by support for the party and its leaders. Fully 64% of Democrats say their party is doing only a fair or poor job in standing up for its traditional positions on such things as protecting the interests of minorities and helping the poor.

Read the whole report here.