Democrats aren’t the only ones with problems this political season.

The Tea Party Convention, now in full swing in Nashville, highlights conservative unhappiness with the GOP’s Washington establishment, and perhaps nowhere is that more on display than in the Republican race for the U.S. Senate in Florida.

In a stunning turnaround, Governor Charlie Crist, the strong early favorite for the GOP Senate nomination in Florida, is now trailing conservative former House Speaker Marco Rubio by 12 points among likely GOP Primary voters.

Both Republican hopefuls in the Sunshine State hold a double-digit lead over their likeliest Democratic Senate opponent, Congressman Kendrick Meek.

Something’s happening in Texas, too. Incumbent Rick Perry's lead over Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has grown a little bigger in the race for this year's Republican gubernatorial nomination in Texas. But Tea Party activist Debra Medina also has gained ground, and her gains appear to come at the expense of Hutchison.

Medina has seen her support grow from four percent (4%) in November to 12% last month to 16% now. She was invited to participate in a January 29 televised debate with Perry and Hutchison based on the growing voter support shown in a previous Rasmussen Reports survey.

Democrats were excited when popular ex-Houston Mayor Bill White announced he was running for governor, but right now the Democrat runs second to Perry, Hutchison - and Medina - in the Texas governor's race. A month ago, White had a six-point lead on Medina.

In January, the number of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats fell another tenth-of-a-percentage point to the lowest level recorded in more than seven years of monthly tracking by Rasmussen Reports. But the number of Republicans fell, too, while the percentage of those not affiliated with either major party is at its highest point since summer of 2007.

A major reason for voter unhappiness with both major political parties is the continuing woeful state of the U.S. economy.

President Obama on Monday released a proposed $3.8 trillion budget for the coming fiscal year, which includes a largest-ever $1.56-trillion deficit. The budget also projects unprecedented large deficits for at least the next 10 years.

While influential 20th Century economist John Maynard Keynes would say it’s best to increase deficit spending in tough economic times, only 11% of American adults agree. Seventy percent (70%) disagree and say it would be better to cut the deficit.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of Americans say the size of the federal budget deficit is due more to the unwillingness of politicians to cut government spending than to the reluctance of taxpayers to pay more in taxes.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) say one way to cut spending is to reduce the number of government employees by 10%. A 10% across-the-board pay cut for government workers is popular with many, too.

A modest plurality of voters (41%) prefer a budget deficit with tax cuts over a balanced budget that requires taxes to be increased. Thirty-six percent (36%) would rather see a balanced budget with higher taxes.

Budget documents released by the Obama administration show that in Fiscal Year 2009 50% of all federal spending went to national defense, Social Security and Medicare. However, only 35% of voters believe that the majority of federal spending goes to just those three areas. Forty-four percent (44%) say it’s not true, and 20% are not sure.

“These figures highlight a massive failure of leadership from both Republicans and Democrats among the nation’s political elite,” says Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports. “Given the amount of political chatter about the budget in recent years, it is almost beyond comprehension that neither party has seen fit to highlight the basics so that the American people can make reasoned choices on the fundamental issues before them.”

During his January 27 State-of-the-Union address, the president spoke about a deficit of trust between the American people and political leaders. Polling on the president’s speech found just how deep that trust deficit has become. A majority of voters did not believe Obama was telling the truth about three of the biggest assertions in the speech - that his administration has cut taxes for 95% of Americans, that “after two years of recession, the economy is growing again” and that steps taken by his team are responsible for putting two million people to work “who would otherwise be unemployed.”

But then 65% of voters nationwide now hold populist, or Mainstream, views of government. That’s up from 62% last September and 55% last March. Mainstream Americans tend to trust the wisdom of the crowd more than their political leaders and are skeptical of both big government and big business. Only four percent (4%) now support the Political Class. These voters tend to trust political leaders more than the public at large and are far less skeptical about government.

Just 19% of voters nationwide believe that the president achieved most of his goals during his first year in office.

Still, the president’s Approval Index ratings improved a point in December after falling a total of seven points in the preceding three months. The gain was aided by a late-month bounce following the president’s State of the Union address.

However, by the end of the week, the bounce appeared to be fading in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

Sixty-one percent (61%) now believe it is at least somewhat likely that the next president will be a Republican, including 40% who say it is very likely. It’s important to note, though, that the question did not specify whether that president would be elected in 2012 or 2016.

With the unemployment rate down slightly on Friday, the president may yet benefit from improving economic news.

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, on Thursday was up 19 points from the level measured one year ago. The Rasmussen Investor Index, which measures the economic confidence of investors on a daily basis, jumped four points on Thursday and is 25 points higher than a year ago.

Consumer confidence in January rose for the second straight month and has almost reached the levels enjoyed before the financial industry meltdown in September 2008.

Similarly, the Rasmussen Employment Index rose for the second straight month in January and is up five points from a year ago. Sixteen percent (16%) now say their employer is hiring over the next couple of months, while 27% say their employer is laying people off. Bleak as those numbers appear, they are an improvement from a month ago and the most positive since the fall of 2008.

Sixty-six percent (66%) of Americans who are currently employed believe leaving their job will be their choice. But just 29% believe their next job will be better than their current one.

Thirty-four percent (34%) of working Americans expect to be earning more a year from today. This level of optimism has been unchanged for several months now.

The Discover Consumer Spending Monitor showed some modest gains. But only 27% say the economy is getting better, while 49% believe it is getting worse.

Americans continue to express little confidence in the U.S. banking system despite billions in bailout funding, but they’re not very worried about their own money in the bank.

While a higher level of optimism is not uncommon at the beginning of a year, 47% of voters now say America’s best days are in the future, the highest level since January 2009. Thirty-nine percent (39%) still think the nation’s best days are in the past.

One sour note: Just 36% of voters think the country is safer today than it was before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. That’s the lowest level of confidence since Rasmussen Reports began polling on the question in 2002. Forty-seven percent (47%) say the country is not safer.

In other surveys last week:

-- The Obama administration is moving a planned terrorist trial out of New York City because of growing public opposition, and 44% of U.S. voters say the trials of all suspected terrorists linked to 9/11 should be held at Guantanamo Bay. Voters believe even more strongly that Guantanamo Bay prisoners should be tried in a military tribunal rather than a civilian court.

-- Thirty-one percent (31%) of voters say the country is heading in the right direction, but the majority of voters (62%) continue to believe the nation is heading down the wrong track.

-- Republican candidates lead Democrats by seven points in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot. Forty-five percent (45%) would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 38% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Republicans have held the lead on the ballot for several months now.

-- Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on nine out of 10 key issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports.

-- If you’re a politician, don’t call yourself a populist. And liberal isn’t much better. Populist is the least popular of five common political labels. It’s more fashionable to be viewed as a conservative, less so to be called a progressive, the label adopted by many liberals.

-- Republican Mark Kirk holds a modest 46% to 40% lead over Democrat Alexi Giannoulias in the race for the Illinois Senate following Tuesday’s party primaries.

-- Connecticut continues to look like one Senate seat Democrats can be more sure of now that Chris Dodd is out of the race. Democrat Richard Blumenthal is still comfortably ahead of his two chief Republican rivals.

-- Harry Reid may soon have one more Republican opponent in Nevada’s race for the U.S. Senate, and his numbers remain in troublesome territory for an incumbent. Reid, like a number of Democratic Senate incumbents, appears to be suffering from voter unhappiness over the national health care plan and the continuing bad state of the economy.

-- For incumbent Democratic Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln, the opponents are interchangeable at this point in her bid for reelection in Arkansas. She’s stuck in the mid-30s against any of five Republican opponents.

-- Republican Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton now posts a 14-point lead over incumbent Democrat Michael Bennett, but her lead over Bennet’s intraparty challenger, Andrew Romanoff, is not as big in the race for the U.S. Senate in Colorado.

-- Rand Paul, who picked up Sarah Palin’s endorsement on Monday, and fellow Republican Trey Grayson continue to lead their two chief Democratic rivals in Kentucky’s contest for the U.S. Senate.

-- Apple Inc. sent the business world buzzing yet again last week with its release of its new tablet computer, the iPad, and pluralities of Americans think Apple does better than Microsoft when it comes to product development and product promotion.

-- Just under half (49%) of adults who plan on watching tomorrow’s Super Bowl say they will be watching it intensely. But nearly as many adults (44%) will mostly be socializing while the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints duke it out on national television.

-- The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada start next week, and 52% of adults say they are at least somewhat likely to watch a large portion of the upcoming games on television. In July 2008, 61% of adults said they were likely to watch a large portion of the Summer Olympics on television.

Check for the latest, regularly updated numbers on our home page and keep up with our daily Presidential Tracking Poll. Premium Members get access to more data, a morning briefing from Scott Rasmussen and an advance look at key findings.

Don’t forget to take a look at Scott’s new book, In Search of Self-Governance. As he points out, “The American people don’t want to be governed from the left, the right or the center. The American people want to govern themselves. … The American attachment to self-governance runs deep. It is one of our nation’s cherished core values and an important part of our cultural DNA.”

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