(Cartoon image above is by Randy Bish in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.)The Republicans are still trying hard to make this coming election be about the president, and they are quick to point out anytime the president's approval ratings drop by even a point. But that's just a shell game. They don't want you to be able to be able to find the ball (i.e., figure out who the real culprits are in refusing to fix this economy and create jobs).
But the public knows who is to blame, and while they may not be ready to put the president on a pedestal, they are still thoroughly disgusted with Congress. They are disgusted with Congress for putting ideology before what's good for the people, and for refusing to compromise for the good of the country. And voters are in a nasty anti-incumbent mood (as Eric Cantor found out a few days ago).
This should worry Republicans a lot (and their trying to make the election about the president shows they are very scared) because the last few times voters were angry with Congress, they flipped control of the House from one party to the other. And this time, they are more angry than I can remember.
The charts below are made from information at the website of RealClearPolitics. The top chart shows the results of the last five polls on congressional approval, and the average of those polls (which is a pitiful 12.8% approval rating). The bottom chart shows the monthly average of polls about congressional approval for the last 18 months. Note that approval of this Congress has not even reached the very low mark of 20% in those 18 months (in fact, it has been a lot longer than that since even one out of five Americans approved of the job Congress is doing).
In other words, the public has been disgusted and angry with the 113th Congress since it began in January of 2013. This should make for a very interesting November election.
