Approval of Republicans at record low: poll

inmytree

stay the course....???

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061019/pl_nm/congress_poll_dc_1



Wed Oct 18, 11:31 PM ET

With congressional elections less than three weeks away, the Republican party's approval ratings are at an all-time low, with approval of the Republican-led Congress at its lowest point in 14 years, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Wednesday.

Forty-seven percent of respondents said they were less in favor of keeping Republicans in control of Congress, compared to 14 percent who were more in favor of maintaining the current congressional makeup, according to the poll.

Only 16 percent of respondents approve of the job Congress is doing, the lowest level since 1992, NBC said.

In October 1994, when Democrats held congressional majorities, Congress had a 24 percent job approval, NBC said. Democrats lost 52 House and 8 Senate seats in the 1994 midterm elections.

NBC said the poll indicates people have been paying attention to the issues they are hearing about -- from Iraq and Bob Woodward's new book on the Bush administration's handling of the war to the unfolding scandal over former Florida Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record)'s e-mail messages to teenage congressional aides.

The poll numbers and President George W. Bush's own job approval ratings, which have been mired in the 30 percent range, are an ominous sign for a party trying to maintain control of Congress, NBC said.

Bush had a job approval rating of 38 percent, down 1 percentage point from a previous NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released earlier this month after the Foley news first broke, NBC said.

Asked who they planned to vote for in the congressional election, 37 percent of those polled said Republicans and 52 percent said Democrats. The 15 percent difference was the highest disparity ever in the poll and up from a 9-point difference a month ago, NBC said.

The poll of 1,006 registered voters was taken from October 13-16 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

polaris

yet somehow this will not translate into election results ...

inmytree

polaris wrote:

yet somehow this will not translate into election results ...

I'm fearful of this, too....I wonder how electronic voting will come in to play...the machines are not secure, yet they will be used...

cincybearcat

Yep, they blew it. They didn;t stick to fiscal conservatism and didn't take the opportunity to dominate the government for a long time to come by embracing some more liberal social values...some.

They deserve to be gone. I just wish Ididn;t have to pay for their mistakes out of my bank account straight into more failed Dem social programs that will undoubtably be coming on the horizon. Awesome.

I wouldn't worry about the elections...but then again, I'm not a scared, conspiracy loving liberal.

farfromglorified

inmytree wrote:

I'm fearful of this, too....I wonder how electronic voting will come in to play...the machines are not secure, yet they will be used...

Umm...paper voting isn't secure either.

Why is that people think technology is so insecure? They'll freak out if they give an encrypted credit card number to a computer, but won't think twice about handing the actual credit card to a human being at a restaurant....

inmytree

farfromglorified wrote:

Umm...paper voting isn't secure either.

Why is that people think technology is so insecure? They'll freak out if they give an encrypted credit card number to a computer, but won't think twice about handing the actual credit card to a human being at a restaurant....

I think twice...thus I use cash or American Express, which I pay at the end of each month...

as for e-voting machines, we'll see how that works out...I was just throwing that concern out there....I memory serves me right, it was recently reported e-voting machines could be hacked...other than Hiro on Heroes, I don't don't know of anyone you can change paper tickets...;)

polaris

inmytree wrote:

I'm fearful of this, too....I wonder how electronic voting will come in to play...the machines are not secure, yet they will be used...

i'm guessing that the GOP will continue to hold control and that any voting irregularities reported will be dismissed and those that question the legitimacy will be considered sore losers ...

edit: as for the credit cards, i have a paper trail that tells me where i've used that credit card ... there isn't one for the voting machines ... huge difference

Puck78

so, how long before that there will be a "terror alarm", that Bush will claim to have arginated?

my2hands

i would look for the "october suprise"

Jammin909

polaris wrote:

i'm guessing that the GOP will continue to hold control and that any voting irregularities reported will be dismissed and those that question the legitimacy will be considered sore losers ...

Right on- you a flimsy wristed fucking pansy if you question the integrity of the government, the war, or rationale behind a new law/act.

chopitdown

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Half of all Americans believe most members of Congress are corrupt -- a figure that has risen 12 points since the start of the year -- and more than a third think their own representative is crooked, according to a new poll released Thursday by CNN.

According to the poll, a majority disapproves of how both parties are handling their jobs in Congress. Just 42 percent approve of how the Democrats are doing in Congress, while 54 percent disapprove. The GOP fares even worse -- only 36 percent approve of their performance in Congress, while 61 percent disapprove.

Pollsters from Opinion Research Corp. interviewed 1,012 Americans from Friday through Sunday. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

In January, 22 percent of those polled said they believed their own member of Congress was corrupt, a number that has jumped to 36 percent since then.

The dismal ratings come almost three weeks before midterm elections will give voters a chance to either change the face of the legislative body or leave it the way it is.

But Americans are squeamish about electronic voting machines as they prepare to head for the polls. Sixty-one percent say they expect inaccurate results because of technical glitches, while two-thirds say it is likely that hackers or political operatives will prevent the machines from producing an accurate count.

Asked how confident they are that their own vote will be counted accurately, 44 percent of poll respondents said they were very confident and 36 percent said they were somewhat confident.

But looking at the nation as a whole, only 31 percent of respondents said they had complete confidence in an accurate vote count, along with 47 percent who said they were somewhat confident. http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/19/congress.poll/index.html

polaris

i wonder if this is the kind of democracy bush hopes to spread ... one where not even his own citizens have faith in ...

cincybearcat

polaris wrote:

i wonder if this is the kind of democracy bush hopes to spread ... one where not even his own citizens have faith in ...

OPen your eyes a bit. Look around the world. Disputed eections in other countries...it's the world climate. Sure, BUsh has some part in it, but not as much as you would like.

polaris

cincybearcat wrote:

OPen your eyes a bit. Look around the world. Disputed eections in other countries...it's the world climate. Sure, BUsh has some part in it, but not as much as you would like.

yeah ... now, look to see which countries the US are part of ... there are many countries that do not have disputed elections ... doesn't it bother you that so many people believe their elected officials are crooked?? ... i would think that is something that should not be tolerable ...

i may not like the direction of some elected officials but i'm not close to calling all of them crooked either ...

cincybearcat

polaris wrote:

yeah ... now, look to see which countries the US are part of ... there are many countries that do not have disputed elections ... doesn't it bother you that so many people believe their elected officials are crooked?? ... i would think that is something that should not be tolerable ...

i may not like the direction of some elected officials but i'm not close to calling all of them crooked either ...

You're a homer.

Sure it bothers me some. I don't think they are all so much crooked as dumb. People like to complain though, it's what they are good at. Blaming others, Eh? Canada has the same problems without the microscope.

Vedderlution_Baby

The reason I'm worried about the electronic voting machines is because digital technology has been hacked and hacked and hacked.

polaris

cincybearcat wrote:

You're a homer.

Sure it bothers me some. I don't think they are all so much crooked as dumb. People like to complain though, it's what they are good at. Blaming others, Eh? Canada has the same problems without the microscope.

your last statement is probably true ... however, i can't believe you are actually giving those guys the benefit of the doubt ...

cincybearcat

polaris wrote:

your last statement is probably true ... however, i can't believe you are actually giving those guys the benefit of the doubt ...

Certainly too many crooks, but a majority? Not sure about that. I think there are some decent peolpe that make some bad decisions from time to time...and apparently in the Washington environment, I think some start to lose a sense of reality and what is exceptable cause they see others doing things.

Now, it is the extent to which they do that where I would draw the line between being dumb and being a crook.

Uncle Leo

No conspiracy theory. No worries about voting machines. No worries about terror alerts...

Nevertheless, I still think the GOP will GAIN seats in the Senate and House this year (and for the next several election years).

These people who are unhappy will not vote. Incumbants usually win.

Ebizzie

Uncle Leo wrote:

No conspiracy theory. No worries about voting machines. No worries about terror alerts...

Nevertheless, I still think the GOP will GAIN seats in the Senate and House this year (and for the next several election years).

These people who are unhappy will not vote. Incumbants usually win.

Don't count on it.

Only 16 percent of respondents approve of the job Congress is doing, the lowest level since 1992, NBC said.

In October 1994, when Democrats held congressional majorities, Congress had a 24 percent job approval, NBC said. Democrats lost 52 House and 8 Senate seats in the 1994 midterm elections.

Ebizzie

cincybearcat wrote:

Yep, they blew it. They didn;t stick to fiscal conservatism and didn't take the opportunity to dominate the government for a long time to come by embracing some more liberal social values...some.

They deserve to be gone.

This is spot on. It seriously disgusts me what has transpired over the past few years with this republican majority. I had SUCH high hopes for some real change in things that REALLY matter to me....smaller government, privatization of social security, real income tax reform, a balanced budget, lowering of the trade deficit, etc..all GOP cornerstones. Instead we've got a ballooning debt, a spiraling trade deficit, a president w/ a republican majority who couldn't pass simple social security reform, a fucking gaggle in Iraq which is costing BILLIONS of our money, a new cabinet position signifying a growth in government, a fucking attack on domestic soil under the "security conscious" GOP watch, liberty-crushing laws and illegal domestic spying, an incompetent defense secretary, and MORE corporate crime.

It's a goddamn fucking embarrassment for me to say that I ever voted republican, much more that I'm a fucking registered republican. They've lost my vote, possibly for good.

I've got faith that someday soon, regardless of party affiliation, someone is going to come and save the day. Could that man be Barrack Obama? I don't know, but there's someone out there that will aim to successfully restore the respectability of this nation. We need a man (or woman) to come in and push for congressional term limits, place very low caps on campaign spending to allow the everyday man a chance to run for office, place extremely strict rules on lobbyists, to open the doors to the white house to the press allowing full and complete disclosure on all issues involving tax payer dollars, rules against porkbarreling...the list could go on and on. But I take comfort in the fact that it's all possible, it just takes enough people getting fed up like I am to push for change. Enough people to ignore the propoganda spewed about and concentrate on a candidate's character, what experiences in life built that character, and the truthiness a candidate offers.