Angry, Dissatisfied Americans

CNN released new poll numbers on Tuesday that show only 12% of those surveyed were satisfied with the job congress has done so far this year.

12%.

And yet, the Democrats are fighting a huge battle to take back the hosue and the senate. What exactly does it take to change the government in the United States?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With midterm elections little more than two months away, Americans are expressing overwhelming disapproval with Congress, incumbents and the way the country is being run, a CNN poll suggests.

Only 12 percent of those questioned said they are satisfied with what Congress has done so far this year, according to poll results released Tuesday.

Eighty-four percent said they wished Congress had done more.

Sixty-four percent of those questioned disapprove of the way congressional Republicans are handling their jobs, while 31 percent approve.

Democrats fared little better. Fifty-seven percent said they disapprove of how Democrats in Congress are doing, as opposed to 35 percent who approve of how Democrats are doing their jobs.

President Bush saw his approval rating hold steady. Forty-one percent approve of how he is running the country, while 55 percent disapproved. The president's approval rating in an August 21 CNN poll was 42 percent with a plus or minus 3 percentage-point margin of error

While Bush is out stumping -feverishly trying to maintain his macho Commander in Chief image - these are the issues that Americans are most concerned about:

The economy topped the list of respondents' concerns, with 28 percent calling it the most important issue when deciding how to cast their ballots. Coming second was Iraq at 25 percent, followed by terrorism (18 percent), moral issues (15 percent) and immigration (14 percent).

Karl Rove decided back in January that the meme to be pushed by Republicans during this election race was national security while the New York Times recently reported that many in the GOP have thrown him from the political train. Rove's miscalculations and failed ideas speak for themselves: No Child Left Behind, the social security issue, Harriet Mier's nomination, the Dubai ports deal, the now tabled proposed immigration reform legislation and on and on.

Too many Americans now realize that their national security, which the GOP have promised to protect since 9/11, is in the hands of politicians who would rather build bridges to nowhere and have emergency sessions about the fate of Terry Schiavo than to buckle down and do what they were elected for: taking responsibility for the state of their union.

According to the CNN poll, Democrats now have a 10 point lead in the run up to the election and they'd be wise to focus on the issues that Americans are most concerned about. Their recent light-bulb moment in reaction to Donald Rumsfeld's latest acidic speech about appeasers which has now - finally - resulted in a coordinated call for his resignation (which Rummy actually tried to lie his way out of) may simply be too little too late. Where were the Democrats when John Conyers called for Bush's impeachment? Where were they when Feingold called for the lesser method of censure? Where have they been since the Iraq war started - that it would take a rabid speech by Rumsfeld to push them to do what they should have done a long time ago: insist that he resign immediately?

And, if Americans are mainly concerned about the economy, why are the Democrats in a reactionary mode to the recent blusterings of Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld about the war on terror/Iraq? Is their entire election platform being noticed or is it enough that Americans are so overwhelmingly angry that they'll simply vote for the Democrats out of spite?

The elections are two months away and the Democrats still have a tough job ahead of them in order to convince the public that their policies will actually have a direct impact on thier lives. It's time to stop playing defense. They need a well-coordinated offense if they are to take back congress and they must prove that they won't continue the Republican's lazy style of governing otherwise many Americans will just hold their collective noses and vote for the devil they know - if they actually get out to the polling stations at all. That's the curse that a do-nothing congress foists upon both political parties: a citizenry so angered by government ineptitude and inaction that participating in the election process at all is shunned by those who have surrendered to the belief that their vote won't make a difference in the grand scheme of things. Can you blame them?