Poll: Bush, Congress Share Approval Rating Of 35%
Sobering news for the Dem Congress? A new AP-Ipsos poll finds Bush's approval rating mired at 35% -- but also finds Congress' approval number stuck at exactly the same level, a drop of five points since last month. A Dem spokesman explains things by saying that "voters are frustrated by the fact that the president refuses to change direction on Iraq."
The internals of the poll aren't available yet, but one explanation of this may be that Dems aren't doing a good enough job explaining to the public that there's little Congress can do short of defunding the war to force the commander in chief to change course. The numbers suggest that perhaps the public is assigning similar levels of blame to Bush and Congress for the failure to change our Iraq policies.
In one bright spot for Dems, the poll also found that Nancy Pelosi's approval rating is holding steady at 45%, 10 points higher than that of Bush.
Update: Commenter Redshift X points out that this Congress approval number doesn't break out what the public thinks of Republicans and what it thinks of Dems. Indeed. Other polls I've seen show a higher approval number for Congressional Dems than for Congress as a whole -- suggesting that it's at least possible that Congress' numbers are being dragged down by the GOPers. Let's hope the internals give us a breakdown.
Update II: The internals are here. No breakdown, unfortunately.
I don't know whether or not this would be captured by such a poll, but I increasingly get the sense that progressives themselves are very frustrated by how little seems to have changed since the takeover. You've got Abu Gonzales all but giving the finger to Congress, with no evident repercussions; there has been no major new legislation (I understand that this isn't atypical and that many things, from minimum wage increase to reauthorization of major legislation, are still in progress--but still); and for all the important and worthwhile investigations going on, we have as yet no scalps to nail to the wall.
Is it better? Sure. (And the approval ratings reflect that: wasn't the 109th down around 20-25 percent through last year?) But the slow pace of action, coupled with the ongoing standoff regarding the war, must be eating into the patience and regard of the electorate.
May 11, 2007 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
...or Dems not explaining that we need Republicans and republican-lites (that are also part of Congress) to at least provide some Checks and Balances on our money, for this war, and the executive branch.
May 11, 2007 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Democrats aren't the only ones in Congress. I've only seen one poll that asked separately about approval of congressional Democrats and Republicans, which suggest that it's Republicans who are dragging down Congress' approval ratings. Congress is never as popular as individuals (like presidents) because it's easier to dislike a collective institution than an individual, so comparing the two numbers directly is apples and oranges. Making the apples-to-apples comparison to historical levels, I suspect the approval number for Democrats in Congress, unlike the president's, is not low.
May 11, 2007 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
dajafi has hit on it. The Democrats are coming across as being reactive and afraid. The voters expected action. So far, they haven't seen much.
Both independents and the democratic base are becoming very frustrated with the overly cautious elected Democrats. They want Congress do do something, anything. Edwards had it right. They should simply reintroduced the vetoed supplemental and sent it back to the President over and over again until he gets the message.
Ron Byers
May 11, 2007 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Repubs score points in the House and Senate by saying Dems want to end the war and won't admit it. Dems talk about how we need "to change the course" and "new policy initiatives". I've even heard some of them say we all want a plan for "victory" in Iraq.
That's bullshit. There is no victory to be won. There is no change of course that's gonna put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Whether this president or the next withdraws from Iraq there will be dancing in the streets of Baghdad. Shiites and Sunnis alike will celebrate their "victory" over the occupiers. As soon as the aid money buyoffs run out the stooges who run the country, whether it's Maliki or another set of Iranian backed gangsters will start making public anti-American statements in order to hang onto their phony baloney jobs or more likely because "polls" tell them they'll be strung up from lamp posts if they don't. They'll tear up that godawful hydrocarbon law forced down their throats by Cheney in a New York minute.
Why would they be so ungrateful? First of all because they're Arabs and live in the ME. The US has been getting bad press in those parts for decades. Secondly because Bush 1 told them to overthrow Saddam in 1991 and then had coalition soldiers stand idly by, sometimes as Republican Guard troops moved right through their ranks to massacre them. Then we sanctioned the whole country into the poorhouse for over a decade for Saddam's sins. Now we've invaded, occupied and destroyed their country. We locked them up without trial and in some cases without even writing down their names and tortured them in the same goddam prison Saddam used. 4 million are displaced. 2 million outside the country. Probably a million have died. 53% in the last poll said they have a close friend or family member who has been killed or wounded by the violence.
Just say it, we're getting out of Iraq. We're putting an end to Bush's quagmire. We're saving what's left of our Army. The only ray of sunshine is that the Iraqis will exterminate Al Qaeda in Iraq in less than a week after we leave.
May 11, 2007 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I know that things are moving more slowly than progressives want, and many are becoming disgusted. I busted my tail for Jason Altmire, PA-4, and the little ba***rd voted against the immediate withdrawal legislation that went down to defeat in the House yesterday.
Blue Dogs, DLCers, and embedded "centrists" like Steny Hoyer make the job of creating a responsive Congress much harder than it seemed in November. But the grassroots/netroots know the dimensions of the task at hand, and are coming to realize that there is a solution - challenging these GOP-lite characters in their respective Democratic primaries with real progressives.
It's a long, hard slog, and we'll catch flak from the flacks screaming that we're dividing the party, but we are going to change the make-up of the Congressional Dems profoundly by 2010, make no mistake about it.
These polls are like waves on a swiftly flowing river. They don't tell you much about the strength of the current.
May 11, 2007 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Update II: The internals are here. No breakdown, unfortunately."
Perhaps that has something to do with Rangel and others sneaking together a trade bill with Bush and then having Pelosi announce it. No input from anyone, just "here it is" and meanwhile "there go your jobs!" That's not representation, that's backroom dealing with power and money and f*ck the people. Yeah, they probably deserve the ratings.
May 11, 2007 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
The deal requires trade bills to include labor rights and environmental protections. That's a good thing.
They have not yet renewed fast track either, which is where the action is. That's when we'll see where things stand.
May 11, 2007 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly right.
If I was asked, I don't know whether I would say that I approve of Congress because I'm frustrated that the GOP members of Congress are stopping or slowing down things that I want to pass.
Another way to poll is to ask, "Do you approve of the job your congressperson is doing?" Those numbers are always pretty high by comparison. (If they asked about the House, they could even break that down by GOP vs. Dem.)
You might say, not in favor of Congress as a whole, but also say in favor of Dems and in favor of my Dem Congressperson (or not in favor of my GOP Congressperson).
May 11, 2007 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Both HR 2237 (the McGovern bill) or HR 2206 (the Obey bill) have about the same timeline for getting our troops out of Iraq, January 1st. HR 2237 failed. HR 2206 passed. HR 2206 allows us until late July to pressure blue dogs and more importantly Republicans to pull the plug in that second vote. We can get every Dem to vote for leaving Iraq and it still won't be a vetoproof majority. We need to peel off Repubs who don't want to lose their jobs. We have a bunch here in IL. What about your state? Instead of pointlessly criticizing Dems or Repubs here, WRITE THEM. Tell them to get their resumes ready if they insist on siding with the lameduck boyking. Send them links to Iraqi polls, to the article about the Iraqi parliment passing their timetable resolution to get us out. There isn't a Repub in the nation who hasn't touted those purple fingers. Well the purple fingers elected those politicians who voted for a timetable to get us out of their country. Respect democracy in Iraq and the US. We all want the US occupation of Iraq to end. Repubs have no leg left to stand on. Tell them to end this war or we'll elect someone who will. That's the only way to end this war, not by bringing down the Dem majority.
May 12, 2007 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
HR 2006 (200+ pages) (Obey) still has the reporting of the implied oil law benchmark in it (so I don't know why Obey was spitting bricks at Kunnich)? Versus HR 2237 - (5 pages) (McGovern) doesn't. Don't be over-simplistic! Obey is showing himself to be an angry blowhard == there's still a load of bull in HR 2006... that is currently, unrealistically achievable.
Anyho, regardless, you are right to tell people to get at both the Dems and Repubs... And I would further advocate to join, say, Moveon and to commit to hopefully more: Iraq Call-In Days!
Calling constituents in other states and INFORM them, remind them, direct them to information that they can present to their congress critters and Senators to help end this war.
Calls irritate the hell of them - note Susan Collins beginning to change her tune... as well as Snowe (a start - next people need to tell her to walk the talk with the right vote). Letters and emails although helpful can be thrown away and deleted. An informed and active constituent on their doorstep, taking up their phonelines is less manageable.
If some WITHIN the Dem majority is causing problems that don't want to get out of Iraq, then I think it fair game to bring them to the light or show them up in the light? HR 2206 is by no means perfect, (a start maybe) but don't keep trying to sell it that it is.
May 12, 2007 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
As far as I can see HR 2237 has nothing at all about the oil law in it. Even if it did I think dictating to the Iraqi government what they ought to do like Cheney and Kucinich want to do is an imperialist demand. That oil law sucks both ways. It gives the SCIRI and DAWA goons who run the government a chance to get payed off before they bug out to Tehran or London
and it supposedly gives big oil an inside track. I doubt either will ever be able to collect.
Raed thinks passing it will make the "nationalists" fight even harder. So tell me, say the Iraqi government passes that awful oil law soon like Cheney wants them to do and it makes the insurgents go that much crazier, what happens? Right now insurgents are getting into Kurdistan and blowing shit up to get them to bargain. These days, hopefully not forever,
car bombs in markets are the way they keep score, the way they politically pressure, the way Rassmussen, Gallup keep score here.
The upshot is after they pass that law Petraeus comes back in July or Sept. and has no choice but to say the surge has failed. If you actually fear all that BS about turning the corner forget it, Saddam left enough munitions in that country for a guerilla war lasting til the end of the next decade. They can and will outlast our military. Even if Bush had a 90% approval rating our Army isn't capable of keeping this up.
The US can not make a happy ending in Iraq for Iraqis as much as Cheney pretends he's trying to and Kucinich would like to delude himself he can. Our reputation there is shot. We are an utter failure as an imperialist power because no.1 we're really ill suited for it (thank God) and no. 2 the rest of the world has wised up to imperialist ways. That's why Saddam buried anywhere from 250,000 to a million metric tons of munitions around the country. He knew exactly what it'd take to repeat what happened in the 1920s.
In short we can't force Cheney's allies in the US or Iraqi governments to change course, we can only wait til they hang themselves. It's gonna have to get worse before it gets better and Cheney is making it worse. Let him.
May 13, 2007 10:29 PM | Reply | Permalink