Maybe being president ain't so bad
It's no secret that George W. Bush is a hated man by a fair percentage of the country right now. Add to that number an even bigger section of the population that isn't happy with his performance, for whatever reason, and it's clear the president is "unpopular," to coin the phrase.
But maybe being an unpopular president isn't all that bad.
Consider the fact that Bush's approval rating (according to a recent Gallup poll) rests at 33 percent. Yes, that's ugly, but he's at 33 percent and holding. He's been in the mid-30s holding pattern for a long time now. And despite any more bad news out of Iraq, he isn't falling below that number.
Now consider the same poll's approval rating for Congress: 29 percent. Yep, Congress actually has a lower approval rating right now than the president. So if people don't like Bush's handling of the war, evidently they like Congress' ideas to change it even less. And that's saying something!
As a point of reference, when congressional Republicans were beat down in last November's election, suffering from a series of public scandals, Congress had an overall approval rating of 26 percent. So it seems most Americans don't like congressional Democrats any more than they do congressional Republicans.
This year's high point in approval ratings for Congress reached only 37 percent. Last month, the institution had an approval rating of 33 percent.
So the polling trend is heading downward, while the president's, oddly enough, is holding steady. Weird.
I'm not a big polls guy. Never have been, never will be. I think polls obviously are skewed no matter what, because it entirely depends upon how questions are posed and who gets asked.
Still, this is not good news if you're a congressman, particularly a Democrat. The party was supposed to sweep into Washington and do away with scandal-plagued government and return to helping "middle class Americans" (the majority of us, at least in theory). That was only last fall, about eight months ago.
If you sweep in the elections with a groundswell of change and then approval numbers don't follow suit, there's a serious image problem, Houston.
But maybe being an unpopular president isn't all that bad.
Consider the fact that Bush's approval rating (according to a recent Gallup poll) rests at 33 percent. Yes, that's ugly, but he's at 33 percent and holding. He's been in the mid-30s holding pattern for a long time now. And despite any more bad news out of Iraq, he isn't falling below that number.
Now consider the same poll's approval rating for Congress: 29 percent. Yep, Congress actually has a lower approval rating right now than the president. So if people don't like Bush's handling of the war, evidently they like Congress' ideas to change it even less. And that's saying something!
As a point of reference, when congressional Republicans were beat down in last November's election, suffering from a series of public scandals, Congress had an overall approval rating of 26 percent. So it seems most Americans don't like congressional Democrats any more than they do congressional Republicans.
This year's high point in approval ratings for Congress reached only 37 percent. Last month, the institution had an approval rating of 33 percent.
So the polling trend is heading downward, while the president's, oddly enough, is holding steady. Weird.
I'm not a big polls guy. Never have been, never will be. I think polls obviously are skewed no matter what, because it entirely depends upon how questions are posed and who gets asked.
Still, this is not good news if you're a congressman, particularly a Democrat. The party was supposed to sweep into Washington and do away with scandal-plagued government and return to helping "middle class Americans" (the majority of us, at least in theory). That was only last fall, about eight months ago.
If you sweep in the elections with a groundswell of change and then approval numbers don't follow suit, there's a serious image problem, Houston.
