A look at the polls

You ever wonder if it works when companies name themselves “AAAA Co.” or something similar to get to the top of the phone book listings? Well, maybe it does. There’s a great website I used to visit all the time last fall, called RealClear Politics. But I never go there anymore. Why? Because my Bookmarks menu is so long that it runs past the bottom of my screen, and the R’s are too far down on the list. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.

RealClear Politics was a site I visited several times a day during election season. They had an electoral college map that was updated daily based on each state’s polls, and it was incredibly accurate. It called something like 48-49 states correctly. They also had links to polls for state races, and great commentary.

So, today, I thought of RCP and decided to surf over and take a look at their “Polls” section. And was it ever interesting. Here’s what I found:

  • Dubya’s disapproval rating is 10% higher than his approval rating.
  • But that’s nothing compared to Congress, whose disapproval percentage is averaging 26 points higher than its approval percentage. In a couple of recent polls, the disapproval percentage was more than double that of approval!
  • Our country is going in the… right direction, 37.5%; wrong direction, 57.0%.
  • All this bad feeling gives Democrats an advantage in the midterm elections, but surprisingly, it’s only a 5.7% advantage.

Here’s the link. I’m going to promote this site to a higher place in my bookmarks. One to watch as the elections draw closer.