Zogby: Bush ratings up, Congress takes hit

In the national survey of 1,012 likely voters, taken July 12 through July 14, about 66 percent said Bush had done only a fair or poor job as president, with 34 percent ranking his performance as excellent or good.

That is up slightly from his low of 30 percent in early March and in line with other national polls showing Bush's approval ratings lingering at or near historically low levels amid continued chaos and bloodshed in Iraq.

But the marks for Congress, mired in gridlock over a series of partisan political battles after Democrats took power in the 2006 elections, continued to drop.

While 83 percent said Congress was doing a fair or poor job, just 14 percent rated it excellent or good. Last October, in its final days, the Republican-led Congress earned ratings of excellent or good from 23 percent of voters.

"There is a growing sense that people voted for change in 2006 and they aren't getting it," Zogby said.

...

Several years of headlines about possible torture of U.S. detainees, treatment of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center and international anger over the Iraq war has not dented the pride of Americans.

About two-thirds of the likely voters surveyed said they were "very" proud of the United States, with 22 percent saying they were "fairly" proud and 8 percent saying they were not very proud of their country.

- Yahoo News

I find it amazing to think of the opportunity the Democrats have squandered... and I find it discouraging to think that the Republicans have not capitalized on their ineptness...

Oh leadership, oh leadership, where art thou?

UPDATE: Don Surber has some cogent related comments:

The Democratic Party gets 14% job approval. Bush 34%.

If this were a Little League game, the 10-run rule would apply.

Congressional Democrats are spinning their wheels trying to “get” George Bush. Democrats promised not to waste their time impeaching Bush. That is what they are doing. The public disdain for Democrats is overwhelming.

It took 12 years for Republicans to drop to 23%. Dems already are down to 14%. That means even Mom is starting to wonder about you.

14% job approval. Nixon did better. On the day he left office!

Comments

[Morgan K Freeberg]

Just noticed something about this, and it's not something I've been tracking so it probably means nothing, I dunno.

In the case of both President Bush and Congress, "fair" is delegated to the bad column. In both cases, this doesn't seem quite, uh, fair. You walk up to me at dinner and ask what I think of the job the waiter's doing, and I say "fair," that's approval is it not?

This seems to me to be a significant polling issue, if the situation faced by the President and Congress is one in which a highly positive outcome is unlikely. Situation's close to hopeless, I send in a champion, I'm hoping the champion will pull some kind of rabbit out of a hat but I've no idea what it would be...it doesn't happen...someone asks me how the champion's doing I'm going to say "fair." I wouldn't be wild about it, or even pleased, but it would be a stretch to conclude from that that I "disapprove."

It seems obvious to me that the low rating that Congress is getting is because they are not getting us out of Iraq. The polls show a huge majority of Americans want out of Iraq, and yet Congress isn't getting us out of Iraq. Zogby himself said it quite clearly:

"There is a growing sense that people voted for change in 2006 and they aren't getting it,"

Let's not make too much of the fact that Mr. Bush's rating are up. They're up by four percentage points in this one poll only, and the margin of error is typically 3 points. If you look at a wide variety of polls, the message is that Mr. Bush's popularity has reached rock bottom at the 30% of Americans who are diehard supporters and would support Mr. Bush no matter what he did.

The undeniable truth is that the great majority of Americans disapprove of Mr. Bush.

[Morgan K Freeberg]

I think I get it.

Fourteen is more than thirty. Thanks.

[Erasmussimo]

Fourteen is more than thirty. Thanks.

Mr. Freeberg, the fact that you had to resort to such a desperately incorrect response is strong evidence that you don't have a decent response. In such cases, it's better to leave well enough alone.

[Morgan K Freeberg]

I got a great definition of "desperate." Arguing about the approval ratings of some guy who isn't running for President.

There are some things much less popular than this lame-duck President. Like crotch fungus. The KOSsack Congress, however, wallows in approval ratings lower than that.

It's 2004 all over again. Echoing a bunch of empty-headed anger is a very easy thing, it turns out; channeling that anger into a viable political platform, around a cohesive workable strategy -- well, that's something else isn't it?