Obama Up, Congress and "Direction" Down

Real Clear Politics has an interesting (at least to me, anyway) poll that I think is reflective of the business as usual in Washington.

President Obama's approval numbers are doing alright, hovering around 60 percent. For the fanfare he received upon his inauguration, one would think that his numbers would still be somewhere in the 924 kajillion percent range, but this economy has understandably darkened most people's moods.

He has had to replace and defend more of his appointed associates than anyone in recent history. His Recovery and Reinvestment Stimulus has received a bevy of question marks, most notably the line that allowed for AIG bonuses that riled the public up to the point of lethal threats. And his main man Timothy Geithner has yet to put his feet on solid ground, while his toxic asset purchasing plan has yet to be determined as successful or hare-brained, with many experts leaning toward the latter.

Brummett gave him an arrow down this weekend. I give him an arrow that has yet to be pointed. He really does deserve a fair shake at this substantial, but not wholly insurmountable crisis.

Congress has its mandate, so says Speaker Pelosi, and now much charge forward to the tune of an abysmal George W. Bushian approval rating of 36.8 percent. Speaking of W., his ratings in the last two years were often better than the Democratic Congress with which he quarreled in his last two years in office. Ouchtown.

This isn't unexpected; Everyone hates Congress.

Sure, people enjoy their own delegates, but loathe the remaining. That means while the average Arkansan applauds their six homebodies (four Congressmen, one Senator, and one Senatorita), they just can't stand the other 529 guys. Like the imitable George Carlin said, paraphrasing, "To us, all of their stuff is s**t, but to them, all of their s**t is stuff."

But the odd blending of these two may yielding the most suprising entry. The overall direction of the country has an even lower and even more stomach-turning approval rating of 35.8 percent. Granted, "overall direction of the country" is a vague description that, in fact, doesn't describe anything much at all.

But what do polls mean in the first place? This one seems to show what everyone else already understands: It's tough out there.