Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 4/20-4/23/2009. All adults. MoE 2% (4/13-4/16/2009 results):
| FAVORABLE | UNFAVORABLE | NET CHANGE |
|---|
| PRESIDENT OBAMA | 68 (69) | 27 (26) | -2 |
| | | |
| PELOSI: | 34 (37) | 50 (46) | -7 |
| REID: | 33 (34) | 50 (49) | -2 |
| McCONNELL: | 22 (21) | 60 (61) | +2 |
| BOEHNER: | 15 (16) | 63 (63) | -1 |
| | | |
| CONGRESSIONAL DEMS: | 42 (43) | 50 (49) | -2 |
| CONGRESSIONAL GOPS: | 13 (13) | 73 (72) | -1 |
| | | | |
| DEMOCRATIC PARTY: | 52 (53) | 41 (41) | -1 |
| REPUBLICAN PARTY: | 20 (21) | 70 (69) | -2 |
Full crosstabs here. This poll is updated every Friday morning, and you can see trendline graphs here.
With the exception of a single individual (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi), the other major players in Washington see a shift in their net approval of no more than a couple of points in either direction. Furthermore, it is indiscriminate: Congressional Dems shed one point more than the Congressional Republicans, but the Republican Party at large shed one more point than the Democratic Party.
In other words, for everyone but Nancy Pelosi, it looks like the numbers are just floating around in the margin of error. Everyone except for Mitch McConnell (who is now practically beloved at a fav/unfav split of 22/60, a net improvement of two points) lost 1-2 points net on their favorabilities.
And then there's the Speaker. This was not a good media week for Pelosi. The question throughout the week has been the extent to which she knew about the government and torture. With media focus on such an ugly subject, we see her take a legitimate seven-point hit on her favorables: down to 34% approval with 50% disapproval.
Interestingly, in their slight movements, both Harry Reid and Congressional Democrats also hit the 50% public disapproval milestone this week. That means the only two entities that still have net public approval are President Obama (who sheds two points net, but still sits steady at 68/27) and the Democratic Party (virtually unchanged at 52/41).
One piece of new data in the poll this week was a very early indication of where the American electorate might be in the 2010 Congressional elections. When asked "Would you like to see more Democrats or more Republicans elected to Congress in 2010?", voters preferred the Democrats by a 41-29 margin. However, in a sign that voters are very much in a "trust-but-verify" mode, nearly a third of Americans indicated that they were not sure who they'd rather see make Congressional gains.
These numbers, lest anyone yell "Daily Kos!! Liberal Bias!! AAAARGH!!" at them, match to the exact margin a poll question issued yesterday by none other than Fox News, which phrased the question slightly differently but also found a twelve point Democratic lead (47-35).
The Fox News poll also mirrors the R2000/Daily Kos poll on the Obama job approval trends. While Fox News has a lower job approval (60%), they show a shift within the margin since their last poll as well.
Meanwhile, the Daily Kos poll also reached a similar conclusion to the CBS poll I reported on yesterday. In short, Americans are feeling more confident than they have in a LONG time that America is going in the right direction. CBS had the right track numbers at 45%, R2000/DK has it at 46%.
THE BOTTOM LINE: This week was a pretty uneventful week for everyone not named Nancy Pelosi. Meanwhile, the American public is showing a growing sense of optimism that things are going to get better with Obama at the helm. Not only did both CBS and R2000 find substantial improvement on the right track/wrong track issue, but Fox News framed the question differently (they asked if America's best days are ahead of us or behind us), and they found a similar sense of optimism (57% said America's best days are ahead of us, versus just 33% who said our best days are behind us).
All the delicious details for this week's Weekly Tracking Poll can be found right here.
