Congress’ Approval Rating At Lowest Point for Year

[Beacool]

Hillary Clinton only Administration official with positive ratings

Rochester, N.Y. — September 2, 2009 — As the fall season begins, the focus moves away from town hall meetings and what is going on around the country back to how people in Washington are dealing with the issues, especially health care reform. Unfortunately, many in Washington are not dealing from strong positions, including the president himself, in terms of their approval ratings. In fact, when it comes to many of the leaders of Congress as well as those handling economic issues, majorities of Americans are not even familiar enough with these people to have an opinion regarding them. These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,498 U.S. adults surveyed online between August 10 and 18, 2009 by Harris Interactive.

Administration Leaders’ Ratings
The rating of individual leaders in the government varies greatly:

 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the only member of the administration to have a positive job rating. Just over half of Americans (51%) give her positive marks, while 31% give her negative ratings and 18% are not familiar enough with her to have an opinion;

 Vice President Joe Biden is rated more negatively (38%) than positively (33%) while 29% are not familiar enough to have an opinion;

 Just over one-quarter of Americans (28%) give Defense Secretary Robert Gates positive ratings while 17% give him negative ones, but a majority (55%) are not familiar with him;

 One in five Americans (20%) rate Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke positively, one-quarter (24%) rate his job performance negatively and 56% are not familiar enough with him to have an opinion; and,

 Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is rated positively by 17% of Americans, negatively by 26% and 57% are not familiar with him.

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/pubs/Harris_Poll_2009_09_02.pdf

I'm thrilled for Hillary, she has had consistently positive ratings all year. But, how can more than half of the people not know who Geithner is and 29% not know Biden??? Are they living under a rock?

:o

[tridim]

1. IMO all this poll says is that the media sucks.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Is this an interactive survey? If so, it's crap. nt

[Jennicut]

6. Yes....its online and by phone survey. Gallup has Congress with a higher apporval rating.

Not too into interactive polls.

[Beacool]

10. Maybe so,

but how the heck can someone living in the US not know who is their vice president?????

And after the economic mess had Geithner on everyone's TVs for weeks at the beginning of the year, how can they not recognize him too.

We just got some damn ignorant people in this country!!!

;(

[Captain Hilts]

11. Trust me. Most don't. In 1994, I taught intro to US govt. at a university.

Few knew Gore was their Veep and MANY thought Warren Burger was still chief Supreme.

They all knew Reno because of Waco and that she was visually distinctive.

Remember, Ringo was THE most popular Beatle. Folks could pick him out most easily among the four.

[Beacool]

17. That's just pathetic!!

:(

[Jennicut]

14. LOL. Ever watch Leno? Some people are not too bright.

Hillary is more well known being a former first lady....thank the lord the people they asked at least knew who she was!

And I approve of the job she has down wholeheartedly. :)

[Beacool]

19. Yeah, we got some dummies running around.

Pretty scary if you think about it.

:scared:

[Forkboy]

3. Somehow I just knew Hillary was going to be in this OP.

[Beacool]

5. Who loves you, Forky?

Kisses.....

:*

[Forkboy]

12. Hillary Clinton.

[Beacool]

15. Well, Bill better not find out or you'll be in trrrooouuubble!!

:7

[DevonRex]

7. *snort*

:hi:

[fasttense]

4. Dicky boy Cheney had the worse ratings in the history of VPs.

But the rest (except Hillary) are bush idiot hold overs. Their ratings were pretty awful when the bush was in office too.

[Beacool]

8. Not all are Bush holdovers.

Particularly not the cabinet (other than Gates). Cheney is in a category by himself, his ratings were at sub-basement level. LOL!!

:D

And well deserved, the guy is a nasty creep!!

:scared:

[argonaut]

9. I don't get why Biden has negative approval ratings.

I mean, it's not like he's dominating the news or anything. What's he done that's so bad?

[Beacool]

13. The MSM almost always portrays him as a goofball

and that's what's in people's consciousness. They think that he's nothing much more than a gaffe machine.

:(

[ProSense]

18. BS. The MSM plays up Biden's gaffes, but they do not portray him as a "goofball"

This poll is garbage. It shows Biden with a few more negative points than Hillary and more than 10 points in the don't know column, which is high for both. Yet you are making claims that the few-point difference in the negative column is because the media portrays him as a "goofball."

No, it's because the poll is garbage.

[Jennicut]

16. I don't know, his approval in July by a Washington Post/ABC News poll was at 55%

Beacool is right though...the media portrays him as a goofball. And Hillary as interfering And Obama as naive. The media pisses me off daily.

[Beacool]

20. They create caricatures of people and they don't deviate, no matter what the facts.

Hillary was always portrayed as "polarizing" no matter how many millions of people voted for her. They had their meme and the facts were not about to make them change their minds. The current meme is that Hillary has been marginalized by Obama. We used to have journalists, now we have a bunch of pundits who think that they know better than the people they cover.

x(

[Jennicut]

21. I heard that marginalized crap before too.

Gotta love the so called liberal media, right?

[Beacool]

22. In this 24 hr. news cycle era, the media is no longer in the business

of covering the news in an objective matter. It's all about the sell. The Obamas and Clintons create ratings and move newspapers. So any controversy will do and it will be looped and shown over and over ad nauseam.

Remember the brouhaha over Hillary's response to that student in Congo? Well, it took the entire front page of the NY Post and the NY Daily News. The horrendous situation of the women in Congo? Who gives a shit!!! Let's worry instead about whether Hilz is jealous of Bill, whether she was having a bad hair day or wonder if she's gained weight. Those things are far more important than bringing to light the appalling way that women and children are brutalized in the DRC.

The MSM makes me sick most of the times.

x(

[Beacool]

24. Oops, I meant to say "manner, not "matter".

:blush:

[damntexdem]

23. Hmm, whatever could Congress have done to earn such low marks?

Surely it couldn't be something they haven't done! ;-)

[Sheepshank]

25. it's all about comparison

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/congressional_job_approval-903.html

According to the chart they have done better this year than in the 2 previous years. I'd say they are holding their own in this sucky economy and the ranting and raving lunatic right fringe.

ps...Congress historically scores much lower, like 20 points lower, that POTUS. That is why it's important to compare Congressional poll standing to congressional poll standings and not to other political bodies.