07.14.07

Apples, Oranges, Lies, Damn Lies, and …

Posted in General at 10:31 am by Clay

…statistics.

An AP article that appeared on the front page of today’s Wisconsin State Journal stated,

In the eyes of the public, Congress is doing even worse than the president. Public satisfaction with the job lawmakers are doing has fallen 11 points since May, to 24 percent, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.

Poll respondents from both parties say they’re tired of fighting between Congress and the White House and want the two branches of government to work together on such issues as education, health care and the Iraq War.

So congress has an approval rating of 24 percent versus Bush’s 33 percent; therefore, congress must be less popular than the president, right?

Of course, if you were to ask people how they felt about their representative, they would almost certainly give a much higher approval rating.

As a personal aside, I’d rather like to see the two branches of government work against one another. I can only hope that congress can obstruct the president and force him to be more open than he has, and I can only hope the president can obstruct congress enough to slow down the pork fest.