The congressional Republicans have been telling anyone who would listen that President Obama's job approval is dismally low, while the American people have given them a popular mandate to impose their own agenda on the country. They should rethink both of those allegations, because neither is true.
It turns out that the president's job approval numbers have rebounded nicely, improving by 11 points since last October. It seems the president is getting credit for the improving economy and for falling gas prices -- and I suspect a lot of people are liking the new strength the president has been showing lately. For the first time in months, the president's approval equals his disapproval (46% to 46%).
The same cannot be said of the GOP-controlled Congress. Their job approval remains mired in the very low double-digits (16%) -- a full 30 points lower than presidential approval. While many people now support the president, almost no one supports the Congress (not even Republicans, who give it a 58% unfavorable rating).
And the two charts below give us a clue as to why this is true. A majority of the public believes President Obama will make an attempt to work with the Republicans in Congress, while a majority thinks Congress will continue to play political games instead of trying to work with the president for the good of the country. The public wants compromise in Washington -- and they don't believe the Republicans can or will do that.
And then there are the two charts at the bottom of this post. While the public is not really happy with either political party, they favor the Democratic Party a little more than the Republican Party (by about 7 points among both the general public and Independents).
All of these charts were made from information contained in a new CBS News Poll -- conducted between January 9th and 12th of a random national sample of 1,001 adults, with a 3 point margin of error.