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The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.

Developing... Just a headline right now.

Only 12 percent of Americans now have confidence in Congress, the lowest percentage in the 35 years that the Gallup Poll has tracked the number. Americans now view Congress less favorably any of the 14 other American institutions tracked by Gallup, including big business, newspapers and health maintenance organizations. Even as President Bush’s approval rating languishes at a record low, more than twice as many Americans have confidence in the presidency — 26 percent — than have confidence in Congress. The Democrats have controlled both houses of the Congress since January 2007. It remains to be seen whether the Democratic...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Less than a majority of Americans approve of the job performance of each of the three branches of the federal government, with the Supreme Court rated most positively and Congress least positively. The ratings for all three branches approach the lowest Gallup has measured historically. -- Survey Methods Results are based on telephone interviews with 822 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted June 9-12, 2008. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points. Interviews are conducted with...

The Senate narrowly passed a ban on waterboarding as part of their intelligence bill, setting up a showdown between Congress and the White House on limitations for interrogation techniques. The bill clearly states approved and disapproved procedures, ending the ambiguity that has created much of the controversy over whether anyone has ever broken the law in interrogating terrorist suspects. And surprisingly, one of the figures at the head of the controversy opposed the bill: The Senate voted yesterday to ban waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics used by the CIA, matching a previous House vote and putting Congress on a...

President Bush's agenda these days is not subtle: Blast Democratic lawmakers for ineptitude. Then find a way to do it again. Even with the factors working against him – record-low approval ratings, fading public attention and dwindling time in office – Bush still talks like a leader whose hand has never been stronger. Backed by a veto power that's hard to override, Bush has taken to blistering Congress in a remarkably relentless fashion. The latest scolding came Thursday. Bush accused Democrats of forgetting the lingering terrorist threat and putting the nation at risk. Then he prodded Congress to give him...

Democrats turn to traditional issuesBy: Martin Kady II Oct 8, 2007 07:30 PM EST Iraq will undoubtedly remain a major issue, but at least in the Senate, Reid is turning away from Iraq votes for a while. Photo: AP Congressional Democrats rode anti-war sentiment to victory last fall — but they are staking their success in the final months of this year’s calendar on more traditional domestic issues amid concern that the war may not be the potent political issue it once was by Election Day 2008. With few Iraq votes expected in the next several weeks — a marked...

House Democrats reaffirm anti-war stance during conference call with PelosiAug 24, 2007 3:00 AM by Susan Ferrechio, The Examiner WASHINGTON - House Democrats returning from the August recess plan to press ahead with legislation to end the war in Iraq, despite some evidence that the recent troop surge is succeeding. About 100 lawmakers reaffirmed their anti-war position in a conference call Thursday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The House reconvenes Sept. 4. The main sentiment expressed by the members, according to one participant, was, “We need to move forward on this.” Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly, who said Democrats are...

PRINCETON, NJ -- A new Gallup Poll finds continued low levels of public support for both Congress and President George W. Bush. Twenty-nine percent of Americans approve of Congress, down slightly from last month's reading (33%) and this year's high point of 37%, while Bush's approval rating is holding steady at 33%. (Snip) According to the May 10-13, 2007, Gallup Poll, 29% of Americans approve and 64% disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job. Congressional approval is down 4 percentage points since last month, and is 3 points lower than the 32% average measured during the first five...

Newsweek publishes a breathless account of how George Bush's approval rating has dropped to 28%, and how leading Democrat contenders now outpoll the Republicans across the board for the 2008 presidential race. Coincidence, Newsweek asks? They should have asked that question of their pollsters: It’s hard to say which is worse news for Republicans: that George W. Bush now has the worst approval rating of an American president in a generation, or that he seems to be dragging every ’08 Republican presidential candidate down with him. But According to the new NEWSWEEK Poll, the public’s approval of Bush has sunk...

April 30, 2007 Forty-three percent (43%) of American adults Approve of the way that George W. Bush is performing his duties as President. Fifty-five percent (55%) Disapprove of his performance. The President earns approval from 78% of Republicans and 18% of Democrats. Among those unaffiliated with the two major parties, 37% approve.

Forty-one percent (41%) of American adults Approve of the way that George W. Bush is performing his duties as President.

Testimony in the case of a Chinese-born engineer accused of stealing U.S. defense secrets revolved Thursday around whether he needed government approval to export a document on a quiet submarine propulsion system to China. Authorities believe Chi Mak, a naturalized U.S. citizen, stole thousands of pages of defense documents from his defense contractor employer, Power Paragon, and gave them to his brother, who passed them along to Chinese authorities over a number of years. He was arrested in 2005 in Los Angeles after FBI agents stopped his brother and sister-in-law as they boarded a flight to Hong Kong. Investigators said...

APPROVAL RATINGS FOR CONGRESS DIPPING (AGAIN) Many of the newbies rode into town and thought they were going to shine like radiant little stars. After all, they had been promised --and had promised the taxpayers back home -- that they were about to solve all the problems of the western world. And maybe even Antarctica, since that was a subject that also warmed their hearts. Little did they realize that there would actually be people in Washington who did not agree with them. Nobody ever told them that. Here they thought they'd be insulated from those mean old Republicans and...

President Bush "faces the nation this week more unpopular than any president on the eve of a State of the Union address since Richard Nixon in 1974," according to the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll. "Nixon was beleaguered by the Watergate scandal; for Bush, three decades later, it's the war in Iraq. With his unpopular troop surge on the table, his job rating matches the worst of his presidency: Thirty-three percent of Americans approve of his work in office while 65 percent disapprove, 2-1 negative, matching his career low last May." Other key findings: "On a personal level, majorities now...

The first post-election update to our War on Terror tracking shows increased confidence regarding the United States’ position. Forty-five percent (45%) of respondents now say the United States and its allies are winning the war—a five-point increase since the last survey, taken immediately preceding the 2006 mid-term elections (see crosstabs). This is the highest level of confidence measured in all of 2006. In fact, with just a single exception, it is the highest level of confidence recorded since December 2005. The current results clearly show the impact of Election 2006. Democrats and unaffiliated voters are more optimistic than in the...

WASHINGTON— In yet another hurdle for Republicans, the scandals that have dogged Congress for the past year are prominent in the minds of many voters who say corruption will significantly influence their vote in November. With midterm elections fewer than five weeks away, the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that about half of likely voters say disclosures of corruption and scandal in Congress will be very or extremely important when they enter the voting booth. About two out of three of those voters said they would cast their ballots for Democrats in House races, further complicating the political landscape for...

Gannett, so link only:http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-09-18-bush-poll_x.htm

Republicans determined to win in November are up against a troublesome trend - growing opposition to President Bush. An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted this week found the president's approval rating has dropped to 33 percent, matching his low in May. His handling of nearly every issue, from the Iraq war to foreign policy, contributed to the president's decline around the nation, even in the Republican-friendly South. More sobering for the GOP are the number of voters who backed Bush in 2004 who are ready to vote Democratic in the fall's congressional elections - 19 percent. These one-time Bush voters are...

President Bush's approval rating has gone from 33% to 38% this month in the latest ABC/Washington post poll. And while he's still not over 40%, the survey finds that Republicans seem to be more supportive of Bush now, with 82 percent of all Republicans saying the president is doing a good job, as well as 78% of moderate Republicans, who had supported Bush at only a 57 percent rate in May. However, of those who disapprove of the president, a new high of very nearly half of those polled disapprove "strongly," writes ABCnews.com. By contrast, the Democrats have lost a...

June 22, 2006 Forty-three percent (43%) of Americans approve of the way that George W. Bush is performing his role as President. That’s the highest rating he has received since May 6. This update is based upon nightly telephone interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. With a three-percentage point margin of sampling error, today’s spike may be little more than statistical noise. . . . . . . Using the seven-day rolling average, the President’s Job Approval has been at 41% for most of the past two weeks. That’s a modest rebound from the 38% level we...

SACRAMENTO – A two-house committee approved a new state budget of roughly $131 billion yesterday, setting the stage for Senate and Assembly votes this week that could produce the first on-time budget in two decades. But Democrats sent the new spending plan to the legislative floors despite opposition from Republicans, with the apparent hope that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would help negotiate agreements on remaining differences. Republican legislators, whose votes are needed for the two-thirds approval of both houses required to pass a budget, made it clear that they want changes made in the plan that was approved by the committee....

For one day at least, President Bush was more popular than he's been all year. The president's lagging poll numbers got a swift boost from Thursday's news that U.S. warplanes had killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted-terrorist in Iraq. Polling done on Thursday for the IBD/TIPP Presidential Leadership Index gave Bush a 44.2 rating, up from 39.1 in the prior days of June and 38.9 in May. The last time the Index reached this level was in December, when it hit 44.3. Readings below 50 are negative. The complete June index will be released on Tuesday. Raghavan Mayur, president...

The conventional wisdom on President Bush's low job approval ratings is that they are his punishment for lack of progress in Iraq.I don't agree. The actual evidence indicates that Bush is not losing popularity because we're losing the war. He's losing popularity because we're not losing the war. He is unpopular precisely because Americans no longer fear that we are going to be forced into retreat from Iraq, or that terrorists are going to start blowing themselves up on the streets of our cities. Americans now feel complacent enough to focus on other issues--the issues they thought were most important...

President Bush's job approval rating has jumped six points in the wake of a media barrage of criticism over his administration's telephone records collection program. A Harris Interactive poll published in The Wall Street Journal Online on Friday had Bush’s approval rating at an all time low - with just 29 percent of Americans saying they liked the way he was handling his job. The Harris survey polled 1,003 adults on May 5-8 - before USA Today frontpaged their report on the National Security Agency's telephone records collection program. A Gallup survey released Friday yielded a similar result, with just...

President Bush plans to address the nation on Monday night at 8 PM to con the American public into buying into his ludicrous immigration policies. His approval ratings are at an all-time low, with only 31% of Americans approving of his job performance, while "68% believe the United States is worse off today than it was before Mr. Bush became president." Bush's immigration policies would open the floodgates to illegals, and Americans do not approve -- and it looks like the Senate agrees. Another poll shows support for the House's tough and very sensible immigration legislation, HR 4437: ...69 percent...

WASHINGTON, May 9, 2006 – Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld urged Congress today to quickly approve President Bush's 2006 supplemental budget request, telling Pentagon reporters delays will hamper military operations and slow down progress in Iraq. The $72.4 billion supplemental request contains funds for the ongoing military, diplomatic and intelligence operations in the global war on terrorism. It designates $3.7 billion for the Iraqi Security Forces Fund and $2.2 billion for the Afghan Security Forces Fund. Cuts in the request and delays in approving it will hamper what Rumsfeld called "truly significant process in turning over greater responsibility and territory...

PRINCETON, NJ -- President George W. Bush's job approval rating has reached yet another new low for his administration, according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll. The poll, conducted May 5-7, 2006, finds that 31% of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president while 65% disapprove. Bush's approval rating is down three percentage points from last weekend, which is not a statistically significant drop, but has shown a six point decline from early April and a 12 point decline since the start of the year. The decline in Bush's approval rating has accelerated in the...

PRINCETON, NJ -- President George W. Bush's job approval rating has reached yet another new low for his administration, according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll. The poll, conducted May 5-7, 2006, finds that 31% of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president while 65% disapprove. Bush's approval rating is down three percentage points from last weekend, which is not a statistically significant drop, but has shown a six point decline from early April and a 12 point decline since the start of the year. The decline in Bush's approval rating has accelerated in the...

Monday May 01, 2006--Forty percent (40%) of Americans now approve of the way George W. Bush is performing his job as President. Fifty-nine percent (59%) disapprove. Those numbers for today match the President's numbers for the full month of April. Data from all 15,000 completed interviews in April produced the President's lowest ever full-month Job Approval Rating. It also reflects a decline of 11 points since the beginning of his second term.

See Caution below by Paul Krugman Paul Krugman: The latest polls do show some improvement in peoples' perception of the economy, although it's still strongly negative. But there's no mystery there: it's all about gasoline prices. It turns out that there's a stunningly close relationship between short-term movements in Bush's approval rating and changes in the price of gasoline. You can see it for yourself at an interesting web site, Professor Pollkatz's Pool of Polls. (The site is very anti-Bush but provides interesting data analysis whatever your politics.) In fact, given the fall in gas prices back to pre-Katrina levels,...

Gasoline Prices, Iraq, or Both?This is a plot of Pres. Bush's approval rating and the inverse of gas price index. Looks like a strong correlationOne of my current econometrics students is working on a similar hypothesis, trying to determine which is more important to presidential approval, accumulated U.S. deaths in Iraq or the price of gasoline. While the talking heads and the far left would have us believe it is the former, it is all too likely that it is really the latter.Professor Pollkatz

WASHINGTON - A once-a-month injection to treat alcoholism won federal approval Thursday, expanding availability of a drug previously sold only in daily pill form. The Food and Drug Administration approved Vivitrol, spokeswoman Laura Alvey said. Cambridge, Mass.-based Alkermes Inc. will make the injectable form of the drug, also known as naltrexone. Cephalon Inc., of Frazer, Pa., will market and sell it. The companies hope monthly injections of the drug, to be administered at a doctor's office, will prove an easier regimen for alcoholics to follow than the daily pill. The drug is to be used in conjunction with counseling or...

THE PRESIDENT'S RENOVATION STRATEGY Renovation strategy? That's one word you could use. Today George Bush begins a series of speeches trying to turn more public support for the war on terror in general and the war in Iraq in particular. It's an effort to rebuild his approval numbers. We've seen this before. The public becomes restless, and George Bush launches a series of speeches about the war in Iraq. Today Bush will talk about the global war on terror at George Washington University. I'm still a supporter of the Iraqi war. I still believe that Saddam Hussein had to be...

WASHINGTON - President Bush, once the seemingly invincible vanguard of a new Republican majority, could be endangering his party's hold on power as the GOP heads into this year's midterm congressional elections. A series of political missteps has raised questions about the Bush administration's candor, competence and credibility and left the White House off-balance, off-message and unable to command either the nation's policy agenda or its politics the way the president did during his first term. This week, newly released video of Bush listening passively to warnings about the dire threat posed by Hurricane Katrina and a report that intelligence...

This past Monday, CBS, otherwise known as See? BS!, Al-Jazeera West, and the Corrupt Broadcasting System, proved once again that it is nothing but a shameless propaganda tool of the Democrat party, by releasing the results of a poll it rigged... uh... conducted recently showing that President Bush's popularity rating has plummeted to an all-time low of 34 percent. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/opinion/polls/main1350874.shtml

An instant poll taken by CNN/USA Today/Gallup gave President Bush a 75% positive rating. CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer said more than 400 adults who watched the State of the Union address were surveyed in the poll. When asked to rate the president’s speech, the poll broke down like this: 48% gave Bush a very positive rating 27% gave Bush a somewhat positive rating 23% gave Bush a negative rating Although those numbers may not look remarkable on first glance, that’s actually a 75% positive rating for Bush when the top two categories are combined. His approval rating in the most...

I was just watching Fox News and they said that W's approval rating is in the low 40's. The Rasmussen from this morning said 48%. That sounds like the upper 40's to me. What gives?

Bush's Approval Rating Revives As President Goes On Offensive BY JED GRAHAM INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted 12/19/2005 In taking the offensive to buck up support for the U.S. effort in Iraq, President Bush has revived his sagging political fortunes. He kept up the public-relations campaign Monday with a news conference that followed Sunday night's address to the nation.

APPROVAL RATINGS FOR ALL 50 GOVERNORS  (Released 11/29/05) SORTED BY 11/05 'NET JOB APPROVAL' (approval minus disapproval)  11/29/05 Net 11/05 Approval Tracking Graphs # State Name Party '04 ECV Approve Disapprove 1 Connecticut Rell, Jodi  R Kerry 77% 18% 59% CT 2 North Dakota Hoeven, John  R Bush 75% 20% 55% ND 3 South Dakota Rounds, Mike  R Bush 73% 21% 52% SD 4 Utah Huntsman, Jon  R Bush 73% 22% 51% UT 5 New Hampshire Lynch, John  D Kerry 69% 23% 46% NH 6 Montana Schweitzer, Brian  D Bush 68% 27% 41% MT 7 Virginia Warner, Mark  D...

To listen to the way it is spun in the Washington Post and crowd on the left, you'd think that President Bush's "all time low" job approval rating was the end of the world: On virtually every key measure of presidential character and performance, the new survey found that Bush has never been less popular with the American people. Currently 39 percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 60 percent disapprove of his performance in office -- the highest level of disapproval ever recorded for Bush in Post-ABC polls. But if you look closely, these numbers...

Your e-mails: Advice for the president CNN.com readers offer ideas for what Bush should do Wednesday, November 2, 2005; Posted: 7:22 p.m. EST (00:22 GMT) (CNN) -- Just a year after President Bush won a second term in a tight election, his administration faces plummeting approval ratings and troubles including rising energy prices, an indictment at the White House and waning support for the war in Iraq. CNN.com asked readers to pose as advisers to the president and offer suggestions for ways the administration could get back on track. Here is a sampling of those responses, sent in by e-mail....

PRINCETON, NJ -- According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted this past weekend, less than half of the American public believes former senior White House aide I. Lewis Libby Jr. did anything illegal in the matter for which he was indicted; a majority says the controversy involving him is an isolated incident rather than symptomatic of low ethics at the White House; and there is little shift in the already low opinion ratings of the players closely associated with this controversy, including ratings of presidential adviser Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney. President George W. Bush's job approval rating...

APPROVAL RATING FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH AS OF 10/18/05  SORT ► SORTED ALPHABETICALLY BY STATE SORTED BY 10/05 'NET APPROVAL'  SORTED BY 'APPROVAL' IN DESCENDING ORDER Sorted▼ JOB APPROVAL / PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH  (Released 10/18/05) SORTED ALPHBETICALLY BY STATE   10/18/2005 Net 10/05 Approval Link to Interactive Tracking Graphs with Sub-Selects for Demographics # State '04 ECV Approve Disapprove 1 Alabama Bush 48% 49% -1% Alabama Bush Approval Tracked 2 Alaska Bush 52% 44% 8% Alaska Bush Approval Tracked 3 Arizona Bush 40% 55% -15% Arizona Bush Approval Tracked 4 Arkansas Bush 38% 58% -20% Arkansas Bush...

Forty-three percent (43%) of American adults now approve of the way George W. Bush is performing his role as President. That matches the lowest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports. Fifty-six percent (56%) Disapprove. The President's performance in office earns Approval from 74% of Republicans. Through most of his Administration, the President' has enjoyed solid support from his own party with Approval Ratings among Republicans in the high 80s or low 90s. Eighteen percent (18%) of Democrats, and 35% of those not affiliated with either major political party also give the President their Approval. In New Jersey, the race for...

ATLANTA - The U.S. Justice Department gave Georgia the go-ahead Friday to use a new map drawn by Republicans for congressional elections next year. The map, drawn after Republicans gained control of the Legislature this year, replaces an earlier one crafted by Democrats when they held the power to redistrict. The map significantly restructures the state's 13 congressional districts, eliminating oddly shaped districts which Republicans argued were purposefully designed by Democrats to punish Republicans and retard that party's growth. Republicans gained the governorship and control of the state Senate in 2002 and control of the House in 2004. Before that,...

APPROVAL RATING FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH  (Released 09/22/05) SORTED ALPHBETICALLY BY STATE  09/05 Net 09/05 Approval Link to Interactive Tracking Graphs with Sub-Selects for Demographics # State '04 ECV Approve Disapprove 1 Alabama Bush 51% 44% 7% Alabama Bush Approval Tracked 2 Alaska Bush 49% 48% 1% Alaska Bush Approval Tracked 3 Arizona Bush 44% 53% -9% Arizona Bush Approval Tracked 4 Arkansas Bush 41% 57% -16% Arkansas Bush Approval Tracked 5 California Kerry 34% 64% -30% California Bush Approval Tracked 6 Colorado Bush 42% 56% -14% Colorado Bush Approval Tracked 7 Connecticut Kerry 36% 62% -26% Connecticut...

PRINCETON, NJ -- A new Gallup Poll reflects further erosion in President George W. Bush's job approval rating, continuing the slow but steady decline evident throughout the year so far. The poll -- conducted Aug. 22-25 -- puts Bush's job approval rating at 40% and his disapproval rating at 56%. Both are the most negative ratings of the Bush administration. Bush's previous low point in approval was 44% (July 25-28, 2005) and his previous high point in disapproval was 53% (June 24-26, 2005).   Bush's average approval rating for the last three Gallup Polls -- all conducted in August -- is 43%....

SORTED ALPHABETICALLY BY STATE  APPROVAL RATINGS FOR ALL 100 U.S. SENATORS AS OF 8/18/05 08/05 Net 08/05 Approval # State U.S. Senator Party SR/JR Approve Disapprove 1 AL Shelby, Richard R SR 60% 29% 31% Senator Approval Tracked for Shelby, Richard 2 AL Sessions, Jeff R JR 55% 34% 21% Senator Approval Tracked for Sessions, Jeff 3 AK Stevens, Ted R SR 65% 25% 40% Senator Approval Tracked for Stevens, Ted 4 AK Murkowski, Lisa R JR 48% 43% 5% Senator Approval Tracked for Murkowski, Lisa 5 AZ McCain, John R SR 69% 23% 46% Senator Approval Tracked for...

PRINCETON, NJ -- A new Gallup Poll finds a decline in George W. Bush's job approval rating. After standing at 49% approval in the prior two CNN/USA Today/Gallup polls conducted this month, now just 44% of Americans say they approve of Bush, a new low mark for the president. The poll also shows a drop in Bush's favorable rating to 48%, which is the first time it has dropped below 50% since Gallup began tracking this opinion in 1999. Four in 10 Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the country, which is essentially unchanged from early...