… In follow-up interviews, those respondents to the Times poll gave a complicated and contradictory set of reasons for looking at Congress through rose-colored glasses. Several backtracked or qualified their support when asked to describe what they found so appealing about the institution. The words “idiots” and “ninnies” came up. One respondent described his positive response as accidental. Another mentioned she had been recovering from a recent surgery.
But the small group of people who really did approve of Congress generally seemed to fall into two broad camps, which might be termed the “natural optimists” and the “Obama haters.” [cont.]
Annie Lowrey, New York Times