Gallup releases a poll today showing widespread dissatisfaction with how Democrats in Congress are handling important issues--such as terrorism, the economy, immigration, and the budget deficit:
The latest Gallup Panel survey, conducted Oct. 25-28, 2007, asked Americans to say whether they are "pleased," "neutral," "disappointed," or "angry" about the way the Democrats in Congress have been dealing with seven major issues confronting the nation.
Overall, relatively few Americans are pleased with the Democrats' performance on any of them. This ranges from 7% for the federal budget deficit to 17% for terrorism. Between 12% and 26% say they are angry about the issues. However, most Americans fall in between, with the plurality generally saying they are disappointed with congressional Democrats' performance on each.
The underlying data are extremely interesting. While Democrats frequently claim, for example, that Congress has low ratings on Iraq largely because of the dissatisfaction from their own base over failure to end the war, this poll contradicts that. According to Gallup, 57 percent of Democrats are 'disappointed' or 'angry' in how Congress has handled Iraq; 72 percent of independents describe themselves that way. In fact, Democrats give Congress higher marks on Iraq than on the economy, the deficit, or immigration.
Independents in general seem extremely displeased with how Congress is handling these issues. On immigration, 66 percent of independents are angry or disappointed. On health care the number is 60 percent; on the deficit, it's 65. Looking at the data, it's hard to believe that it was just a year ago that independents voted for Democrats by a margin of 57-39--leading to a Democratic landslide. That Democrats are doing so poorly among this key voting bloc is stunning.
Gallup's release on the poll also combines the 'pleased' and 'neutral' groups together when it aggregates the data. If anything, this unfairly skews the result in favor of the Democrats. After all, when was the last time you came out to vote for an incumbent because you felt 'neutral' about him?
The poll confirms what has been clear for some time: people are deeply dissatisfied with the inability of Congress to get anything done on issues that are important to them. The Pelosi/Reid strategy of confrontation and a 'my way or the highway' approach on immigration, SCHIP, and the Iraq war has led the American people to conclude that Congress is simply not getting anything done. This creates an opening for Republicans, if they can convince the voters that they can do better--which should not be that hard.
Read the Heritage Foundation's Mark Tapscott for some thoughts on the broader meaning of the public disgust with Congress.
