Bush vs. Congress: who’s the unfairest of them all?
Well, neither gets big points for popularity, that’s for sure. But Congress is definitely more of a wallflower than the President. In fact, one might say that right now, according to polls, Bush is half again as popular as Congress: 32.7% job approval for Bush last week vs. 21.5% for Congress.
Ouch.
Well, in all fairness, it’s not supposed to be a popularity contest…
This kind of reminds me of the post-Watergate years of the late 70s. Specifically, after Ford was narrowly defeated and Carter became President. Carter screwed up and then it seemed like nobody had any answers. People were talking about radical solutions like switching to one term Presidents and asking whether we were in a permanent decline.
Well I suppose people aren’t demanding such radical solutions but people seem to be rather unhappy with their present leaders in both parties. I know Bush’s popularity was driven down within his party because of the immigration issue. The Republicans have issues with corruption. The Democratic base is enraged (is that the right word?) they haven’t “ended” the war.
The fact that the Democrats aren’t concerned about the corruption in their party speaks about their enlightened and progressive priorities.
from http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=28456
“The decline in congressional job approval could merely reflect the cessation of any public good will it engendered when the new leadership arrived in January, since the current 18% rating is similar to what it was in December 2006 (21%).
But, it could also reflect disappointment with the new Congress’ performance (especially among Democrats) and economic unease.
Americans elected the Democrats as the majority party in Congress in November 2006’s midterm election in large part due to frustration with the Iraq war and an ineffective and scandal-plagued Republican-led Congress. But any hopes that the elections would lead to change have not been realized as Democrats’ repeated attempts to force a change in Iraq war policy have been largely unsuccessful due to presidential vetoes, disagreements within their own party, and the inability to attract Republican support for their policy proposals. Also, many of the Democratic leadership’s domestic agenda items have not become law even though some have passed one or both houses of Congress.”
UB,
Well, thank God for small favors.
C’mon, how about some longitudinal perspective here. Congressional approval rates nearly always are way lower than presidential approval rates, no matter who is president.
Are you willing to take a look at those same rates from, say, 1999?
Congressional approval (remember, Republicans controlled both houses) was 18 percent.
Presidential approval (remember, this was in the midst of the impeachment stuff) was 69 percent.
So, approval (of the Republican Congress) in 1999 was 18 percent and in 2007 is 21.5 percent. Hmm. And approval (of the being-impeached Clinton) in 1999 was 69 percent and in 2007 approval of Bish stands at 32.7 percent. Hmm. Hmm
Boy, do I wish it was possible to correct typos in comments!
Actually, Rasmussen Reports, historically very accurate and unbiased, has Bush at 39%:
President Bush Job Approval