Friday, October 24, 2008

Just Ignore the Men and Women Behind the President

I was doing my AP Government homework about polling, which involved looking up different polls and then analyzing them as good and bad, when I found a Gallup poll that caught my eye. It was a poll about how Congress has the lowest approval rating practically ever, dipping below 30%, tying the 2002 and 1992 approval rating of 18%. Hmm… I thought. How peculiar that the blame for the entire economic crisis, war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the lack of affordable living be blamed on President Bush, when the Democratic Congress also has a record low approval rating. The poll was a little outdated, taken in June 2008, but there is no way that the Congressional approval rating is higher now that the American people can’t even afford necessities like gas and food. No, there is no way it is higher. But, oddly enough, I can’t find anything to back up my claim. It would seem that the cough, LIBERAL, cough media does not want to put out what the Congressional approval rating is right now because they fear it could endanger their precious Democratic seats in Congress. Now maybe I am a cynic, maybe even a bit of conspiracy theorist when it come to the media, but it just seems interesting that I can find President Bush’s recent low approval ratings, but not the Congressional. But, I can’t just blame the media, because the American people are at fault as well. It would seem that most people elect a scapegoat, not the leader of the free world in presidential elections, and Congress in simply an afterthought. After all, if we don’t get the eighth district, there’s always one county over, right? Wrong! Just like every vote, every seat counts. Congress has more power to wield an agenda and approve big decisions than the president. I think the ideas of checks and balances may be forgotten, because everyone seems to think the president can do whatever he wants. In fact, I laugh a little everytime I hear Obama or McCain say “I will stop climate change!” Oh really, you’re going to be the person in the world who ends the natural and appropriate heating and cooling cycle of our earth. Because really if Al Gore couldn’t do it (and remember, he invented the internet) how could any mere mortal expect to? I think that this year everyone should get informed on the Congressional race and know the power that Congress has as well, because just changing the man in the Oval office doesn’t change everything. In fact, I would say a vote for change is a vote for Congress. If I could vote, I would look at everyone on my ticket and then decide who I want to represent and lead the country AND who I want to be checking and balancing that man all the way through.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Betsy, you make a momma proud.

Prof. Jim Hicks said...

Betsy, this is very insightful. The media does seem to be in the tank for Senator Obama to a degree that renders the phrase journalistic integrity an oxymoron and would warm the cockles of William Randolph Hearst's heart. You're also correct about the limitations on the president's ability to make large corrections in a short period of time, particularly on the economy. The president gets too much credit when things go well and too much blame when things go badly. What do you think of the relatively limited coverage that many major media outlets have given to Obama's comments to NPR favoring redistribution of wealth and a new interpretation of the Constitution permitting broader government activism, the Ayers connection and the Senator's anti-Israel friends?

Kate said...

I love you. You are awesome. I aspire to be you. :)

And also why does Dad have a picture next to his comment?

EBrenn said...

You seem to be attacking the Democrats by saying that the Congress has a poor approval rating and should be held in equal light as the president's. While it is true that they held a 233-202 majority in the House at time of this poll, the Senate was dead even at 49-49 with 1 independent and Joe Lieberman.

So lets continue to talk numbers. Only 53% of Congress was democratic at the time of this poll. So the 18% approval rating (which was in May of 2008 not June) was only 53% Democrats fault 47% Republican -- a large share, if you ask me. Compare this to the 29% approval rating of the President. The Presidency is controlled %100 by Republicans.

I think part of the reason the Congressional approval rating was so low was because they couldn't do anything. Republicans and Democrats would not compromise and nothing was signed into law -- by the president.

Also your attack on the liberal media for not publicizing the results of the poll is irrelevant because the people disapproving of Congress are not the liberal media but the citizens of the United States, who despite a liberal media still disapproved of a Democratic congress.