Posted by Mark Silva at 9:55 am CDT
President Bush has found a little uptick in the most recent Gallup Poll – with his public approval rating inching up to 38 percent. Yet, Bush, who has fallen as low as 31 percent in Gallup’s surveys nearly a year ago, remains below a 40 percent-ceiling that he hasn’t pierced for seven months. Congress too has found a modest gain in the latest Gallup Poll.
Could it be Spring?
This does not mean there has been any outbreak of ebullience. People are still voicing strong dissatisfaction with the direction of the nation – with only 33 percent satisfied. They were far more chipper in February of 1999, when Gallup’s “satisfaction measure” reached its apex of 71 percent “All three are still rated quite negatively, with 38% of Americans approving of Bush, 33% approving of Congress, and 33% saying they are satisfied with the way things are going in the nation,” Gallup’s Joseph Carroll reports today. That 38-percent approval for Bush is just a notch above his average of 35 percent for 2007.
And the president’s sub-40-percent streak running for seven months now has only been outdone – or perhaps under-done – by two other presidents in Gallup’s post World War II history of guaging presidential approval: Harry Truman’s long run of disapproval from October 1950 to December 1952 and Richard Nixon’s from July 1973 to August 1974.
Republicans remain more upbeat about Bush than independents or Democrats – with 75 percent of Republicans surveyed approving of the president’s performace, and just 8 percent of Democrats happy.
Just 33 percent of Americans surveyed approve of the job that Congress is doing, and 60% disapprove, according to Gallup’s survey. Congressional approval is up five points since last month, but still slightly lower than the 37% approval recorded after Democrats assumed control this year.
The congressional rating for the year, so far, still marks an improvement over what Gallup found last year. In 2006, congressional approval averaged 25%, with a high of 29 percent and low of 21 percent.
Overall, only 33 percent of Americans surveyed say they are satisfied with the way things are going nationally, with 65 percent dissatisfied.
Gallup’s “satisfaction measure” has run the gamut, since the question was first asked in 1979, from a low of 12 percent in July 1979 to a high of 71 percent in February 1999. It has averaged 43 percent.
The results are based on a survey of 1,008 adults conducted April 2-5, with a possible margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
