I've often said, over the past few months, that the only thing that could stop Democrats from winning the White House in 2008 is the Democratic Party. Well, they're working on it.
Six weeks ago the Democrats held a 24-point lead over Bush as the stronger leadership force in Washington; today that's collapsed to a dead heat. The Democrats' overall job approval rating likewise has dropped, from a 54 percent majority to 44 percent now -- with the decline occurring almost exclusively among strong opponents of the Iraq War.
Of course, the high profile "failure" of the Democratic Congress is on a withdrawal from Iraq. But they're also falling into the same pork-and-corruption cesspool that Republicans did previously, but that the Democrats had explicitly promised to avoid. Add the immigration debacle to that, and there's lot of reasons for the plummet.
Why are our national leaders so unworthy of the challenges we face?
I am not in the business of defending Congress, but I would challenge you to find a poll that has EVER shown Congress above 50%. These folks are the perpetual whipping boy for every problem under the sun and though they deserve a lot of criticism I find your constant listing of poll numbers to be deceiving. Congress has never been particularly popular, is not popular now, and will almost certainly never be popular in the future.
Your President, on the other hand, is in record-low territory which is even more disturbing given his once record-high popularity. The real story here isn't that Congress is again super unpopular. It is that George W. Bush has somehow managed to squander a 90 percentile popularity rating in a little over five years. This does not bode well for the '08 election, or for the GOP in general.
But you already knew that.
It is that George W. Bush has somehow managed to squander a 90 percentile popularity rating in a little over five years.
Didn't Churchill do about the same thing in England?
"I am not in the business of defending Congress, but I would challenge you to find a poll that has EVER shown Congress above 50%."
From the quote in the original post:
"Your President, on the other hand, is in record-low territory which is even more disturbing given his once record-high popularity. The real story here isn't that Congress is again super unpopular. It is that George W. Bush has somehow managed to squander a 90 percentile popularity rating in a little over five years. This does not bode well for the '08 election, or for the GOP in general.
But you already knew that."
I think both stories have interesting implications, but Bush has been in the 30s since Katrina, and even Republican nomineees are becoming increasing critical, especially in the wake of the immigration boondoggle.
Congress has dropped 20 points in less than six months, and that's a new development worth considering, which is why I posted it.
Again, I think the only thing that can ruin 2008 for the Democrats is the Democrats. And they seem to be working very hard at it.
Wow. I can't believe I missed that. Apologies.
I still find it baffling that a Congress is over 50%. Honestly, that is shocking to me. And you're right ... a 20 point drop is considerable over that short span of time.
I think I need more coffee.
The drop might just be more of a sign of things returning back to equilibrium. Congressional approval ratings are almost always in the gutter. Perhaps it was just on a brief high due to the excitement of winning back Congress followed by the inevitable and crushing realization that the purple vat of crooks just got a smidge bluer instead of smidge redder.
Probably doesn't help to have moveon.org pointing out (accurately imho) that dems are intentionally not putting up a real fight on the war pullout because they want to drag it out long enough to exploit it for 2008. I'd wager doing so helps them avoid the chance of the inevitable genocide and/or violent regional instability that they will be responsible for splashed all over the news in the run up to the elections. They can save that for after a post-election pull out. Troops lives on the line in the meantime? Democrats care. Democratic leadership? I have my doubts these days.
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Glock21 Op/Ed
Congressional rating mean very little as a group. Individual ratings in Congress is where the 'rubber meets the road'.
I also found it interesting (if you read further down in the poll) that among leading Presidential candidates on both sides, a significant number (3 out of the top 7) haven't even declared their candidacy yet. In Fred's case, this is almost certainly a technicality, but what does the poplarity of Al Gore and Newt Gingrich say about the perceived quality of the leading declared candidates?
Any GOP canidate will have a tough time until the Party heals the split caused by the current administration. Neither party currently has established a strong basis to build voter support.
The only thing the Dem. congress has done is talk the America people asleep.