by Mark Silva
By the numbers, neither President Barack Obama nor the incumbent members of Congress are looking very comfortable these days.
But then, it takes someone to beat someone - which is why the public discontent with incumbent members of Congress registered in yet another poll today leaves open the question of who will be challenging those incumbents in November, not to mention the question of a challenger for Obama in 2012.
The president's public job approval among registered voters nationwide has slipped to 44 percent in the Marist Poll out today - with disapproval running at 47 percent. It was running 46 approval, 44 disapproval in Marist's December survey.
"Disappointer-in-chief,'' Marist is calling the president today.
As in other surveys, the president's loss of support among independent voters is what stands out today: "For the first time since taking office,'' Marist reports today, a majority of independents surveyed - 57 percent - disapprove of the job that the president is performing, with just 29 percent approving.
The partisans remain polarized: 81 percent of Democrats voicing approval of the president's performance, 80 percent of Republicans disapproval.
""If attracting Independents and bipartisanship are the aim, then the president clearly has a lot of ground to cover in year two," says Lee Miringoff, director of The Marist Institute for Public Opinion.
For members of Congress, however, there is a lot less time to repair relations with frustrated voters. Among registered voters surveyed, if the election were held today, 44 percent say they would vote to elect someone new, while 42 percent say they'd stick with their representative. Among those swing-voting independents, half say they would vote against the incumbent.
"The winds of change are still blowing around the nation,'' Miringoff reports. " If your working address is the U.S. Capitol, you have to watch these figures closely.''
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