What's in a word?

Chris Cillizza over that The Fix blog for the Washington Post thinks the Democrats have an image problem because more people self-identify as "conservative" rather than "liberal."

Asked to name which words fits their political thinking best, "conservative" ruled the roost with 54 percent saying it applied to them. Contrast that with the 34 percent who said "liberal" was an apt description of their political philosophy and you quickly see the image problem Democrats have struggled with in recent elections.

I would disagree. Republicans would seem to have the image problem if over half of the country says they are politically more in line with your party, but still vote for the other side.

Of course Cillizza is talking more about the long run for Democrats. And he's correct, the word "liberal" has been mutilated by the right. Will Democrats being in power take the word back or take a page from President Bush's team and just get a new word?

The chairmen selected to run the U.S. House are some of the more liberal Members of Congress. If they run the place well, they can take back the word pretty quickly.

You can find the rest of his post here. It has a link to exit polls he is using in the post.