I've heard various comments on FOX News programs lately about how President Barack Obama's approval ratings have slipped lately. Given the ensuing silence about Republican approval, that conjured up a big mental Post-It note for me to check the poll. Sure enough, buried in the FOXNews.com article summarizing the poll (which trumpets every bit of bad news for Obama) is one sentence saying, "Separately, 46 percent approve of the job Democrats in Congress are doing and 34 percent approve of Republicans in Congress."
In contrast to the one sentence reporter Dana Blanton spends noting the Republicans' greater disapproval rate are several paragraphs noting a drop in Obama's approval rates, the suggested "buyer's remorse" over having a predominantly Democratic Congress and the "split" over whether Obama has brought "real change" and how "about one in five Democrats (21 percent) thinks the Obama administration is bringing more of the same partisan politics" (before noting that "about the same number of Republicans thinks Obama has already brought real change").
So it's rather curious that not much has been made about the fact that while the positive feelings about Obama may have slipped a bit (even though Blanton admits ratings remain high enough to "please any president") there was almost no commentary about the lack of rising Republican approval. According to the poll, Republican approval rate not only remains lower than Democrats' approval rate by double digits, approval of Congress and Congressional Democrats has risen since Obama took office. The Republican approval rate? Not so much. But to find that information, you have to click away from Blanton's article and review the raw data on a PDF.
http://www.newshounds.us/2009/02/21/fox_news_slants_reporting_on_its_own_poll.php