Almost the entire Republican political strategy in 2009 has been to stipulate to President Obama’s popularity and get to work breaking down the popularity of “Congress” in general and congressional Democrats
in particular. President Obama, after all, isn’t their problem for a few years. 2010 is against their Democratic opponents in the Hill.
As I’ve noted on several occasions this year, the very poor approval numbers for ‘Congress’, which are so often noted by congressional Republicans, stand in stark contrast to the poll numbers for congressional Democrats, which have been pretty strong and vastly better than the numbers for Republicans.
But now, according to Gallup, we have a genuinely stunning surge in approval for Congress. Right? Who knew … Approval of Congress is up to 39%, a twenty point gain since January.
Most of the increase comes from Democrats. But not all. Since January, approval for Congress among Independents has risen from 17% to 34%.
Obama and the congressional Democrats have their jobs cut out for them — probably a more difficult set of challenges than any national politicians have faced in a generation, if not a few generations. But thus far every significant bit of polling data shows the Republicans’ opposition is failing abysmally.
