Congressional approval at historic lows

From USA Today:

Just 14% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress.

This 14% Congressional confidence rating is the all-time low for this measure, which Gallup initiated in 1973. The previous low point for Congress was 18% at several points in the period of time 1991 to 1994.

And it was in 1994 that Congress was cleaned out. It seems that the Dems have outdone themselves here in that they've managed to do in six months what had before taken them three years.

More bad news for the left:

Congress is now nestled at the bottom of the list of Gallup's annual Confidence in Institutions rankings, along with HMOs. Just 15% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in HMOs. (By way of contrast, 69% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military, which tops the list. More on this at galluppoll.com on Thursday).

They're as unpopular as HMO's. Lovely. And much to the chagrin of Reid, Murtha, Kerry, the Code Pinkos, et al, Americans love our soldiers and think our military is doing a great job. That's gotta sting.

So what's the Dems' solution for dealing with this perception that they suck? Simple: pass a criminal alien amnesty plan that only 3% of Americans support! In the words of those dudes on the Guiness commercials: "Brilliant!"

Keep talking, Reid ... UPDATE: Video link to Dennis Miller's shredding of Reid

UPDATE at the end of the post.

From Rasmussen:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now viewed favorably by 19% of American voters and unfavorably by 45%. Just 3% have a Very Favorable opinion while 22% hold a Very Unfavorable views.

Reid has been very visible over the past week in the furor over immigration reform. The effort to pass a bill that was more popular in Congress than among voters may have hurt public perceptions of the Democratic leader. His ratings are down from a month ago when 26% had a favorable opinion of the Democratic Senator. Reid’s highest ratings were 30% favorable in February.

The face of the Democrats in the Senate is roughly half as popular as Jorgé W. Bush. I'd be interested to see what the voters of NV think of their nutjob Senator.

Hey, in fairness, I gotta say what the new RNC Chair is facing:

A new poll shows that U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez's approval ratings with voters have plunged to an all-time low, apparently reflecting his support for a controversial immigration-reform bill.

Only 37 percent of those polled by Quinnipiac University approved of the way Martinez was handling his job, while 34 percent disapproved and the rest were undecided. That's down from a high of 48 percent approval -- and 22 percent disapproval -- in February, before the latest immigration bill was announced.

"The rest were undecided" as to whether he sucks or blows. We Floridians aren't exactly enamored with our Senator, either.

UPDATE (06/11/2007 - 12:56 P.M. EST): Hat tip to Lee for drawing my attention to this (link to video here). Dennis Miller mercilessly (and justifiably) rips Reid a new one.

Hillary no longer invincible

This is not to suggest that she is done. However, she once had this aura of invincibility, and that aura is gone. From Donald Lambro:

Hillary Clinton's negatives keep climbing, raising new questions about her electability and improving the prospects of her chief rivals for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

The New York senator's favorability ratings took a nosedive in mid-April, dropping from 58 percent in February to 45 percent, according to latest Gallup Poll. It was her lowest favorability score since 1993.

A 52 percent majority of the voters now say they have a negative view of her candidacy. That compares to her closest rival, Sen. Barack Obama, who was rated favorably by 52 to 27 percent.

Clinton still held on to her front-runner status in most polls last week, but pollsters and political analysts tell me she is losing the support of strategic blocs in her party's base, including women, liberals and independents, who feel she has waffled on withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

"The recent decline in her image appears to be broad based" among most key voter subgroups, Gallup said.

Even more troubling for her campaign, the Gallup poll of registered voters (taken April 13 to April 15) also showed Clinton losing her double-digit lead over Obama, who now trails her by a slim 5 percentage points in the survey (31 percent to 26 percent). In other polls, the two are virtually tied.

Veteran campaign pollsters, and many Democratic strategists, shocked by her weak numbers, no longer consider her the unbeatable front-runner.

"It's still early in the campaign and it's hard to bet against a Clinton, they're winners. However, the inevitability factor (in her candidacy) is no longer there," independent (sic) pollster John Zogby told me.
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"Hillary isn't wearing well. It seems as if the more people see her, the less they like her," former Bill Clinton campaign adviser Dick Morris wrote at the Townhall Web site. (Maybe because she's a cold, calculating, phony, aloof, Marxist bitch? - Ed.)

"Now for the first time, her low likeability levels are costing her votes, as Democratic-party voters are abandoning her to support Barack Obama," Morris said. "She is losing her base."

Obviously, polls at this stage are meaningless. Kerry (who is rumored to have served in Vietnam) wasn't the frontrunner in any polls until the weekend before the Iowa caucus in 2004, while Dean was virtually considered a lock. Didn't happen that way. So while I wouldn't read this as a sign that Hillary's going to lose, it certainly shows that she's not a shoo-in at this juncture.

Depends on the meaning of "anti-war"

The nutroots don't have as much clout as they'd like to think, at least with normal America. From NRO:

Some interesting polling results in recent days. For example:

According to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll, 61% of Americans oppose “denying the funding needed to send any additional U.S. troops to Iraq,” and opposition is up from 58% in February. (3/23-25, 2007).

A Bloomberg poll reveals 61% of Americans believe withholding funding for the war is a bad idea, while only 28% believe it is a good idea (3/3-11, 2007). (28% hardly seems like a mandate, Kostards. And by "mandate", I don't mean Barney Frank's plans for the weekend. - Ed.)

A recent Public Opinion Strategies (POS) poll found that 56% of registered voters favor fully funding the war in Iraq, with more voters strongly favoring funding (40%) than totally opposing it (38%); (3/25-27, 2007).

POS found also that a majority of voters (54%) oppose the Democrats imposing a reduction in troops below the level military commanders requested (3/25-27, 2007).

A separate POS poll finds 57% of voters support staying in Iraq until the job is finished and “the Iraqi government can maintain control and provide security for its people.” And 59% of voters say pulling out of Iraq immediately would do more to harm America’s reputation in the world than staying until order is restored (35%); (2/5-7, 2007).

A Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll show 69% of American voters trust military commanders more than members of Congress (18%) to decide when United States troops should leave Iraq. This includes 52% of Democrats, 69% of Independents and 88% of Republicans (3/27-28, 2007).

According to a recent Pew Research survey, only 17% of Americans want an immediate withdrawal of troops (4/18-22, 2007). That same poll found a plurality of adults (45%) believe a terrorist attack against the United States is more likely if we withdraw our troops from Iraq while the “country remains unstable”

Should a date for withdrawal be set, 70% of American believe it is likely that “insurgents will increase their attacks in Iraq” starting on that day. This is supported by 85% of Republicans, 71% of Independents and 60% of Democrats. (FOX News/Opinion Dynamics, 4/17-18, 2007).

An LA Times/Bloomberg polls reveals that 50% of Americans say setting a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq “hurts” the troops, while only 27% believe it “helps” the troops (4/5-9, 2007). (But hey, Vince N. knows seven guys who want out now, so this stat MUST be wrong! - Ed.)

Americans want a change in strategy in Iraq, but they don't want to cut-and-run before the military (and NOT Congress) says that job is done...and that includes surrender, er "withdrawal", deadlines.

Dems' 40% better than W's 40%?

Over the last couple of years, Dubya's approval ratings have hovered around 35% - 45% at various times. The MSM was all over that like Barney Frank on a cabana boy, touting how poor a rating of around 40% truly is. Until now. From MSNBC, the headline is amazing: "Public approval of Congress is rising, poll finds"

Public approval for Congress is at its highest level in a year as Democrats mark 100 days in power and step up their confrontation with President Bush over his handling of the Iraq War, the issue that overshadows all others.

Yet for all their eagerness to challenge Bush, congressional Democrats so far have failed to attract significant support among independents, a group that helped propel them to power in last fall's elections and now appears more strongly opposed to the war than the general public.
...
Overall approval for Congress is 40 percent. The survey shows Bush's approval ratings remain in the mid-30 percent range, that a striking 39 percent strongly disapproves his handling of foreign policy and the war on terror, and that the public has scant hopes that the president and Congress can work together to solve the country's problems.
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(You have to dig deep into the story to get to the following part. - Ed.)
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Forty percent of those surveyed said they approve the job Congress is doing, up from 25 percent approval registered for the Republican majority in the weeks leading to last fall's elections. Disapproval of Congress totals 57 percent.

The public opinion split is identical on the issue of Democratic handling of Iraq — 40 percent approve, 57 percent disapprove.

Now I did go to college at Florida State, so you'll have to bear with me here. (Pulling out slide rule...multiply by pi...carry the one...radius squared...) OK, thanks for your patience. It appears to me that a 57% disapproval rating is more noteworthy than a 40% approval rating, since rumor has it that "57 > 40" is an accurate statement. Think about it this way: if the Democrat Congress had an approval rating of 1%, and the next week it was 3%, the headlines would be touting "Congressional approval ratings triples in one week!"

Nope...no liberal media bias!

GOP rank-and-file abandoning Bush? Not really.

Regardless of whether you like Bush, hate him, or could have liked him if not for (fill in the blank), this story is fairly interesting (and likely stunning to liberals and the MSM, pardon the redundancy). From USA Today:

The Washington punditocracy has proclaimed far and wide that Republicans, disenchanted with the war in Iraq, are abandoning President Bush in droves, leaving him the lamest of lame ducks. However, the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll suggests Bush might not be as wounded as he appears — at least not among his party faithful.

The Feb. 9-11 poll puts Bush's job approval at 37%, but among people who identify themselves as Republican or leaning Republican, his approval rating is 76%.

Thus, despite bad news from Baghdad and carefully crafted hand-wringing by high-profile GOP war critics in Congress such as Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, three of four Republicans in the country are hanging in there with the president.

The poll also shows that rank-and-file Republicans have higher regard for the president than they do Republicans in Congress. They gave GOP lawmakers a 63% job-approval rating, 13 points below Bush's. And 72% of Republicans do not think Bush made a mistake sending U.S. troops to Iraq.

So if congressional Republicans figure the key to re-election in 2008 is taking a hard line against Bush on Iraq, they could be dead wrong. (Sucks for you, Hagel. - Ed.) They might lure some independents, but they risk alienating their GOP base. To win, you need solid support from your base plus independents, not independents alone.

Conventional wisdom also says the presidential ambitions of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., could be derailed by his strong support for the war. This poll, however, shows that his stance could be a plus among the base.
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The latest congressional skirmish over Iraq underscores the point. In the House's non-binding vote to oppose the president's deployment of more troops to Baghdad, 17 Republicans voted with 229 Democrats to pass the measure. Four GOP representatives didn't vote. Lost was the fact that 180 Republicans stuck with Bush. By that count, Bush gets a 92% loyalty standing among House Republicans who voted. Hardly a GOP exodus.

In the Senate, Democrats fell four votes short of the 60 needed to force a vote on an identical Iraq resolution. Why? Not enough Republicans would go along. Indeed, seven GOP senators broke with the president, and nine didn't vote, yet 33 held firm. Among GOP senators who voted, that's an 83% Republican loyalty rating for Bush.

Though the president may have lost the country on the issues of the day, rumors of his demise among Republicans voters and lawmakers are greatly exaggerated.

"Greatly exaggerated"? As in, the left and the MSM (pardon the redundancy) may have been...geez, dare I say it?...wrong??

Look, for what it's worth (and this may tick off my conservative friends), I am looking forward to Bush's departure on 1/20/09. I have stated before that when it comes to issues that I find important (tax reform, illegal immigration, federal spending, campaign finance "reform"), I was sold a bill of goods when I twice voted for him. I also feel that the administration has mismanaged the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (though obviously I don't have the doom-and-gloom despair that the left has). Having said that, I am wary of a lot of polls out there, especially those that purport to speak for the right-of-center base.