It seems there are quite a few headlines today about President Obama’s approval rating slipping, and while it’s obvious his support dipped a bit from its post-inaugural highs, the president is still in decent shape. The new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll has Obama’s overall approval at 45%, though Gallup has him at 46%, and the latest ABC/Washington Post poll has the president at 49%. These aren’t great numbers, but they’re not necessarily evidence of a systemic problem, either.
That said, if the political world is interested in an institution with weak public standing, I might recommend the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.
The new NBC/WSJ results show Congress’ approval rating at 12%, with 83% disapproving. When was the last time support for Congress was this awful? NBC/WSJ have been doing national polls for about two decades, and it’s never been this bad.
Given that Obama’s support is still lukewarm, and he’ll never be on the ballot again, I’d argue that Congress’ woeful approval rating is significantly more important.
Indeed, this number could get considerably worse if congressional Republicans kill immigration reform, force a debt ceiling crisis, and threaten a government shutdown.









