Poll finds American public's approval rating for Congress at all-time low

Twenty days before the midterm elections, a new poll released on Thursday showed the American public's approval rating for the job of the Republican-controlled Congress was at only 16 percent, an all-time low since 1992.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, conducted Oct. 13-16, found that 52 percent of those surveyed said they preferred a Democratic-controlled Congress, compared with 37 percent who wanted Republicans to maintain their majority in both chambers of the legislature.

In the survey, Bush's approval rating was at 38 percent, a one- point decline from a previous NBC/Journal poll released earlier this month.

The war in Iraq also continued to be a drag on Republicans and the White House, the poll suggested. In the poll, 68 percent of those surveyed said they felt less optimistic about how things were going there, compared with only 20 percent who felt more optimistic.

The poll was taken of 1,006 registered voters and had a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.

Source: Xinhua