Our unpopular Congress

A new Gallup poll shows Congress’s approval rating is at 17 percent. You’d be surprised at some of the things in history that have been more popular than the current Congress.

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According to a recent Gallup poll, Congress's approval rating is at just 17 percent. Here are some surprising things from recent history that were more popular than the current Congress — and a few it recently edged out.

Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg

Caning

Shortly before American teenager Michael Fay was caned for theft and vandalism in Singapore in 1994, a Los Angeles Times poll found that 36 percent of Americans supported caning as a form of punishment for teenage vandals in the United States.

Heri Juanda / AP

Animal cloning

According to an ABC/Beliefnet poll in August 2001, 37 percent of Americans said cloning animals should be legal.

John Chadwick / AP

Handling of Fukushima

Just 17 percent of people in Japan approve of their government’s handling of the Fukushima crisis, in which a nuclear plant was damaged and leaked radiation in the March 2011 tsunami and earthquake, devastating the communities surrounding it. That ties with this Congress.

Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters

Women wearing shorts in public

Believe it or not, a 1951 Gallup poll found that only 21 percent of Americans approved of women in their community wearing shorts in public in hot weather — but even that's still better than Congress right now.

Dana Felthauser / AP

Human cloning

Cloning humans for scientific purposes has been found to be just as popular than Congress. According to a 2002 Pew Research Center poll, 17 percent of Americans supported scientific experiments on human cloning.

/ AP

Bush at his nadir

President George W. Bush's popularity took a sharp dip after the 2008 financial crisis. A Washington Post/ABC News poll found his job approval rating reached a record low of 23 percent in October 2008. That's slightly lower than Richard Nixon's 24 percent approval rating when he resigned in August 1974, according to Gallup, but it's still much better than this Congress’s.

Charles Dharapak / AP

E.U. leaders handling the economic crisis

Another group of leaders with a higher approval rating than this Congress are those handling the European economic crisis. A 2012 Pew survey showed that 32 percent of Greeks had a favorable view of the leaders, even though just 18 percent believe their country was strengthened by European Union integration and a measly 2 percent say they’re satisfied with the economy and the country’s direction.

Yannis Behrakis / Reuters

Barry Bonds

In 2008, in the midst of the investigation into baseball star Barry Bonds' steroid use, 25 percent of people held a favorable view of him.

Robert Galbraith / Reuters

Tiger Woods during his affair scandal

In the wake of the November 2009 scandal, when the public learned that Tiger Woods had multiple mistresses and he lost numerous company sponsorships, 33 percent of Americans held a favorable view of the golfer.

Matt Sullivan / Reuters

Win over Paris Hilton

Congress only recently surpassed the approval rating for Paris Hilton — who garnered a 15 percent approval rating in a 2005 poll. In January, Congress' approval ratings had reached the Gallup all-time low of 10 percent in February. Not so hot.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Beating out the BP oil spill

Another (very slim) victory: After the 2010 Deepwater Horizon BP spill that released millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, 16 percent approved of the way BP handled the situation. That's one percentage point lower than Congress.

Daniel Beltra / Reuters

Win over John Edwards

Congress can take solace in the fact that it has a wide margin over at least one of its former members. John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina and presidential candidate, was found to have an approval rating of 3 percent in an April CBS News/New York Times poll. That was just before the trial on his use of money to cover up an affair with Rielle Hunter, the woman he cheated on his wife with after she was diagnosed with cancer and with whom he had a child he initially denied was his own.

John Adkisson / Reuters

FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES

A protestor in a Guy Fawkes mask walks past razor wire outside a security perimeter of the G-8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland on Monday, June 17, 2013. The summit is taking place under heavy security, with some 7,000 police lining roads and checking vehicles. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Photos of the day

G-8 summit, massive protests rock Brazil, Britain’s Royal Ascot and more.

Two-year old male rat named Dyatlik wears a costume during a rodent exhibition in Minsk, Belarus, Saturday, June 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Animal views

Rodent exhibition, swimming with elephants, Mexico’s feline mayoral candidate and more.

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 14: Johnathon Carrington, valedictorian at Dunbar High School, laughs with family and friends after his school's graduation ceremony at Howard University on Friday, June 14, 2013, in Washington, DC. Carrington, who grew up in Tyler House public-housing apartments and is graduating from one of DC's low-performing high schoolsy, where academic expectations are high. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Johnathon’s journey

Johnathon Carrington graduated Friday as the valedictorian of his neighborhood school, Dunbar High, and is headed to Georgetown University. But Carrington, 17, is nervous, and so are...

U.S. actress Sandra Bullock poses for the media during a photocall to promote her latest move 'The Heat' in Berlin June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (GERMANY - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)

Eye on entertainment

Sandra Bullock, Jessica Sanchez, Snooki, Billy Porter, Billy Crystal, Sean Hayes, Gwen Stefani and other celebrities.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 16: Reenactors dressed as knights stage a medieval jousting competition at Eltham Palace on June 16, 2013 in Eltham, England. The 'Grand Medieval Joust' event at Eltham Palace, an English Heritage property which was the childhood home of King Henry VIII, aims to give a great insight into life at the palace during the medieval period. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

The Grand Medieval Joust

The Grand Medieval Joust at Eltham Palace, an English Heritage property that was the childhood home of King Henry VIII, aims to lend insight through reenactment into life at the palace...

In this June 8, 2013 photo, youth compete in the Sao Carlos slum local soccer tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The pitch is just dirt and the incandescent lights aren't so bright. But when the boys' feet strike the football in the Sao Carlos slum as night falls every Saturday, big league dreams glow, inflated by the hope of escaping the shantytown with sporting skills. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Brazil’s other soccer fields

With the Confederations Cup opening this week and the World Cup one year away, all eyes are on Brazil, where soccer is arguably played with more passion and art than anywhere else....

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 16: John F. Tatum Sr. hugs his grandson John F. Tatum III during his annual Father's Day block party on Sunday, June 16, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

Father’s Day picnic in Northeast D.C.

A decades-old backyard barbecue in Northeast Washington draws hundreds in honor of dads everywhere. “It’s off-the-chain fun,” says Butch McNair, who has worked one...

LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 16: Miss Connecticut USA Erin Brady reacts after being crowned Miss USA during the 2013 Miss USA pageant at PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on June 16, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Miss USA 2013

Miss Connecticut USA Erin Brady is crowned Miss USA 2013 in Las Vegas.

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