Still Crabby After All These Months

NYTimes (09.21.06):

"With barely seven weeks until the midterm elections, Americans have an overwhelmingly negative view of the Republican-controlled Congress, with substantial majorities saying that they disapprove of the job it is doing and that its members do not deserve re-election, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. The disdain for Congress is as intense as it has been since 1994, when Republicans captured 52 seats to end 40 years of Democratic control of the House and retook the Senate as well." Only 25% in Poll Approve of the Congress

"The poll also found that President Bush had not improved his own or his party’s standing through his intense campaign of speeches and events surrounding the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The speeches were at the heart of a Republican strategy to thrust national security to the forefront in the fall elections." "Mr. Bush’s job approval rating was 37 percent in the poll, virtually unchanged from the last Times/CBS News poll, in August." On the other hand, the LATimes tries to find the silver lining (09.21.06):

"President Bush's approval rating has reached its highest level since January, helping to boost the Republican Party's image across a range of domestic and national security issues just seven weeks before this year's midterm election, a new Times/Bloomberg poll has found." Bush and GOP Making Gains Among Voters

The big "boost"? George's approval rating went "from 41% in late June to 44% in the new poll". Big deal? Hardly. The difference is within the poll's margin of error of +/- 3 points. Don't break out the champagne just yet. "(F)rom other angles, Bush's political position continues to look precarious. His approval rating remains no better than Times polls recorded for President Clinton in the two months before the GOP's 1994 landslide. And Bush faces an intensity gap: The percentage of Americans who say they strongly disapprove of his performance is more than 1 1/2 times as large as the share who strongly approve." Overall? "Many of the poll's findings underscored the persistence of the threat facing the GOP's congressional majority in the midterm election."