Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos & SEIU. 8/9-12. Registered voters. MoE ±3.1% (no trendlines):
Q: Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? "This is the worst Congress ever."
Agree: 60
Disagree: 22
Unsure: 18
What can I possibly say about this question? I suppose I could have joked that there must be some old-timers who remember the "Do-Nothing Congress" that Harry Truman castigated, but as it happens, the 65+ age bracket is actually most emphatic that this congress sucks the most of all! So who hates this congress least of all, then? That would be Republicans, who "only" rate it "worst ever" by a 51-30 margin. Democrats and independents, meanwhile, have nearly identical views about this congress: 64-18 for Dems and 65-14 with indies. I take that as a good sign, since I figure better GOP ratings mean that this congress is more closely associated with John Boehner than Harry Reid, and given how much people in general loathe Capitol Hill right now, that's a positive for Team Blue.
Q: If the candidates for President this fall were Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, who would you vote for?
Barack Obama: 47 (48)
Mitt Romney: 45 (46)
Undecided: 8 (7)
No change here, and that's in spite of the president's job approval dropping to 43-52 (from 44-50). There is a change to our
polling, though, that I should announce: From now through election day, we'll be asking our generic congressional ballot and voter enthusiasm questions every week. As always, you can find links to all our polling data, including our archives of previous polls, on our
weekly trends page.