33% (WaPo/ABC)

The Chimp in Winter (Now a Spring of Discontent)

Since the poll taken on March 5, President Bush has suffered an 8-point decline from 41% to 33% approval in the WaPo/ABC poll. And this was completed before his immigration self-immolation last night. Some other tidbits from this poll:

Democrats are now favored to handle all 10 issues measured in the Post-ABC News poll. The survey also shows a clear majority of the public (56 percent) saying they would prefer to see Democrats in control of Congress after the November elections. Only a third want the GOP to remain in the majority. Nearly three times as many Americans say they will use the elections to express opposition to the president (30 percent) than to show support for him (12 percent).

The poll offers two clear cautionary notes for the Democrats. One is a growing disaffection with incumbents generally. When asked whether they were inclined to reelect their current representative in the Congress or look around for someone new, 55 percent said they were open to someone else, the highest since just before Republicans captured control of Congress in1994. That suggests that some Democratic incumbents could feel the voters' wrath, although as the party in power, Republicans have more at risk.

The second warning for Democrats is that their improved fortunes in November appear driven primarily by dissatisfaction with Republicans rather than by positive impressions of the Democratic Party. Congressional Democrats are rating only slightly more favorably than congressional Republicans, and 52 percent of those surveyed said the Democrats have not offered a clear direction in contrast to that of Bush and the Republicans.

[...]

On one other measure, incumbents look slightly less threatened. More than three in five (62 pecent) said they approve of the way their own representative is doing his or her job, up from 59 percent last month. At this point in 1994, an equal percentage gave good ratings to their representatives, but by October that number had plunged to 49 percent.