CNN’s Miles O’Brien: Democrat-Run Congress 'Riding Pretty High' at 40%

The mainstream media often uses polls to give a biased impression, and CNN’s Miles O’Brien used a recent AP/IPSOS poll to paint a rosy picture of the Democrat-controlled Congress. O’Brien reported on Tuesday that the Democrats were "riding pretty high" with a 40 percent approval rating. For some comparison, in September 2005, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer characterized a 40 percent approval rating for President Bush as "a low point," and used the figure to reenforce his report on the President’s "political troubles."

It’s interesting to note that another recent poll by Gallup puts the current approval rating of Congress at 33%. This is up 7 percent since October 2006, which was right before the election as well.

It’s in CNN’s best interest to report the higher approval number if they want to portray the Democrat-controlled Congress as "riding pretty high."

An excerpt of O’Brien’s report, which he read during the 6 and 7 am hours of Tuesday's "American Morning."

M. O'BRIEN: Lawmakers will also take up the thorny issue of federal funding for stem cell research. The Senate likely to approve the idea ,and that sets the stage for another presidential veto. Democrats are marking 100 days of their congressional reign now, and they're riding pretty high. Right now, 40 percent of the nation approves of the job lawmakers are doing, that's up from 25 percent from right before the election last fall. The numbers from Associated Press/IPSOS polls.

Also, an excerpt of Wolf Blitzer with CNN political analyst Bill Schneider on "The Situation Room" on September 19, 2005:

WOLF BLITZER: President Bush's approval rating back to its low–low point of 40% in our brand new poll. And that only tells us part of the story of the President's political troubles. Let's bring in our senior political analyst Bill Schneider. Bill, how do these new numbers compare with past -- other past two-term presidents?

BILL SCHNEIDER: Wolf, let's see. At this point in their second terms, Presidents Clinton, Reagan and Eisenhower were all about 60% job approval. As you just reported, Bush is at 40. That puts him in the company of Lyndon Johnson, after a summer of urban violence and escalation in Vietnam and just above Richard Nixon in the middle of Watergate. Gulp.