In recent months, approval ratings for Congress have dipped to surprising lows. Indeed, in some polls, Congress’ popularity is lower than the president’s, and while historically that’s not unusual, considering Bush’s abysmal public standing, it’s hardly reassuring for folks on the Hill.<\/p>\n
The typical rejoinder from our friends on the right is that Congress’ falling support is a rebuke of the Democrats. Dems won back both chambers, raised expectations, but haven’t delivered, the theory goes. Depending on which conservative you talk to, it’s because Dems overreached, or are too liberal, or are pushing an unpopular agenda, or are incompetent. Take your pick.<\/p>\n
The New York Times released a new poll<\/a> (.pdf) today that should, at first glance, reinforce the right’s perceptions about public opinion. Congress’ approval rating is stuck at an embarrassing 29% — the same as Bush.<\/p>\n But that’s not the whole story.<\/p>\n In general, is your opinion of the Republican Party favorable or not favorable? In general, is your opinion of the Democratic party favorable or not favorable? People are disappointed that Dems haven’t been able to deliver more — because of GOP obstructionism — but for all the talk about how unpopular Congress is, Dems are still quite popular and Republicans aren’t. Americans in general may be less than thrilled with Congress as an institution, but that’s hardly the repudiation of Dems that conservatives tend to suggest. The Republican Party The Democratic Party No, I don’t understand the 1% of Americans who’ve never heard of the two major parties either, but that’s not important right now.<\/p>\n The point is, all the recent emphasis on the lack of progress in Congress isn’t hurting the Dems a bit. Republicans are still unpopular, Bush is wildly unpopular, and Dems, at least for now, are in good shape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In recent months, approval ratings for Congress have dipped to surprising lows. Indeed, in some polls, Congress’ popularity is lower than the president’s, and while historically that’s not unusual, considering Bush’s abysmal public standing, it’s hardly reassuring for folks on the Hill. The typical rejoinder from our friends on the right is that Congress’ falling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFavorable 38%, Unfavorable 56%, Don’t Know 5%<\/p>\n
\nFavorable 52%, Unfavorable 41%, Don’t Know 7%<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n
\nThe same was true in the most recent CNN poll<\/a> (.pdf).<\/p>\n
\nFavorable 36%, Unfavorable 53%, Never Heard of 1%, No Opinion 9%<\/p>\n
\nFavorable 51%, Unfavorable 38%, Never Heard of 1%, No Opinion 9%<\/p><\/blockquote>\n