Poll results

You will probably hear about the results of this public opinion poll:

http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com/pdf/AP-GfK_Poll_Topline_April_2009.pdf

I was surprised at the high numbers that say the country is heading in the right direction and Obama’s high job approval ratings. These results are on page 2.

Generally speaking, would you say things in this country are heading in the right
direction or in the wrong direction?

Right Direction 48%
Wrong Direction 44%
Don’t Know 7%
Refused 1%

Overall, please tell me whether you approve, disapprove, or neither approve nor
disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president.

Total Approve 64%
Strongly approve 38%
Somewhat approve 22%
Lean approve 5%
[VOL] Neither—don’t lean 2%
Total Disapprove 30%
Lean disapprove 4%
Somewhat disapprove 5%
Strongly disapprove 22%
Don’t know 3%
Refused *%

These poll results can be explained by the answer to this question (on page 21):

Do you consider yourself a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent, or none of these?

Total Democrat 46%
Democrat – strong 16%
Democrat – moderate 20%
Independent – lean Democratic 10%
None – lean Democratic *
Total Republican 28%
Republican – strong 9%
Republican – moderate 9%
Independent – lean Republican 9%
None – lean Republican *
[VOL] Independent – don’t lean 7%
[VOL] None – don’t lean -
[VOL] Other *
Don’t know 19%
Refused -

All of the other demographic questions (on pages 23 – 29) have responses that fall in line with census data. Is it a reasonable outcome that the respondents to a random telephone sample would be 46% democrats and only 28% republicans?