Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 7/06-7/09/2009. All adults. MoE 2% (6/29-7/02/2009 results in parentheses):
| FAVORABLE | UNFAVORABLE | NET CHANGE |
---|
PRESIDENT OBAMA | 61 (63) | 34 (32) | -4 |
| | | |
PELOSI: | 33 (34) | 57 (56) | -2 |
REID: | 31 (32) | 55 (54) | -2 |
McCONNELL: | 22 (23) | 61 (60) | -2 |
BOEHNER: | 16 (16) | 62 (61) | -1 |
| | | |
CONGRESSIONAL DEMS: | 43 (44) | 50 (49) | -2 |
CONGRESSIONAL GOPS: | 12 (13) | 71 (71) | -1 |
| | | |
DEMOCRATIC PARTY: | 49 (50) | 45 (43) | -3 |
REPUBLICAN PARTY: | 22 (23) | 72 (71) | -2 |
Full crosstabs here. This poll is updated every Friday morning, and you can see trendline graphs here.
The slight dip in numbers across the board suggests there is some growing concern across the board directed at lawmakers, as voters start to feel a deeper sense of pessimism about the state of the nation.
Aside from the marginal drops in favorability for...well...everyone this week, this is also borne out by the right track/wrong track statistics. As you can see below, the percentage of Americans thinking the country is on the right track has receded noticeably over the last couple of weeks:
Republicans are not spared either in this week's poll, which is particularly remarkable, given the fact that the GOP's margin for further disdain is pretty thin. When Congressional Republicans are already sitting at 12% approval, how much lower can they truly go? The Democrats, with numbers that are a bit more lofty, have some soft support that can be easily swayed by a lousy jobs report or a spate of bad political news. But the GOP's soft support abandoned ship a couple of election cycles ago. If they are now shedding massive amounts of their base, that is perilous news for the minority party.
For several weeks in a row, the various ebbs and flows of public opinion has done little to change the 2010 generic Congressional ballot. Since its inception here several weeks ago, the tracking poll has seen a double-digit Democratic lead, with plenty of undecideds. As voters grew a tad more grumpy this week, that basic theme remained unchanged:
Would you like to see more Republicans or Democrats elected to Congress in 2010? (last week in parentheses)
Democrats 41 (42)
Republicans 28 (29)
Not Sure 31 (29)
The "takeaway" from this week's edition of the Daily Kos/Research 2000 tracking poll is twofold. First, the basic dynamics in place since Obama took the oath of office have changed only marginally. Democrats remain considerably more esteemed in the eyes of the voters than Republicans, and Barack Obama remains a fairly popular political figure. Much of his erosion of support can be owed to the simple fact that with every day he is in office, the country's difficulties become HIS problem, and not the problem of his predecessor.
And therein lies the second takeaway from this week's poll, and with it, a note of caution for the Democrats: voter patience is not in infinite supply. For Democrats to remain in an enviable political position, one of two things needs to be happening: there either needs to be demonstrable improvement in the state of the nation, or there needs to be a sense that the Congress and the President are successfully acting to bring about said demonstrable improvement. Absent those two things, one would expect to see a marked erosion in the considerable differences in popularity between the two parties.