The Hill News

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that Republicans still face an "uphill climb" to win back the House as his party took its widest-ever lead in a key poll.

Boehner sought on Monday to manage expectations that his party would win the 39 seats necessary in November's midterm elections to win back the House, victories that would likely make him speaker.

"We've got real opportunity," Boehner said of Republicans' chances this fall during an appearance on the conservative Sean Hannity radio show.

The top House Republican cautioned, though, that winning back the House is "still an uphill climb," though he noted that such strong victories were still Republicans' goal.

Boehner's tempered optimism comes against a backdrop in which indicators are increasingly pointing toward the prospect of landslide GOP victories this fall.

On Monday, the Gallup poll showed Republicans with an "unprecedented" 10 percent advantage in its latest survey testing a generic GOP and Democratic candidates against each other.

51 percent of registered voters said they would vote for a Republican if the election were held today, versus 41 percent who would elect a Democratic candidate. The strongest advantage Republicans enjoyed in similar polls, Gallup said, were five point margins ahead of the 2002 and 1994 elections -- both cycles in which the GOP made strides, in 1994, winning back the majority from Democrats.

Boehner was a bit more cautious about the polls, though he noted the! enthusiasm gap in favor of Republican voters.

"No! , all th e polls don't win elections," he said. "Only voters who vote live elections."

Gallup found that Republicans maintain a 25 point gap over Democrats in terms of voter enthusiasm, and a 22 point gap over independents.

"I can tell you that the American people want change, and they want it now," Boehner said.

The latest Gallup poll, conducted August 23-29, has a four percent margin of error.