President Obama's approval rating is back above 50 percent, after falling below that benchmark in March. While the president's numbers are recovering, they are still below his high of 55 percent shortly after his reelection last year.
The latest poll from the Pew Research Center shows 51 percent of respondents approve of the job Obama is doing, while 43 percent disapprove.
But no matter how much the president's numbers fluctuate, they always soar above the approval ratings received by Republicans in Congress. Only 22 percent of respondents approve of the job Republican leaders are currently doing, one of the lowest approval ratings fro either party in the last two decades.
Democrats fare slightly better, though still poorly, at 32 percent approval.
While the American public can sometimes be oblivious to seemingly self-evident political truths, 80 percent say Obama and the Republicans are not working well enough together to address the issues facing the country. (Astoundingly, that means 20 percent don't believe or don't care that there's gridlock in Washington!)
A full 42 percent blame Republican intransigence, though, while only 22 percent say Obama is at fault.
Those beliefs are highly partisan, with Republicans much more likely to disapprove of Obama, and Democrats much more likely to disapprove of congressional Republicans.
But even Republicans are disappointed in the Republican leadership in Congress; only 42 percent of Republican respondents say they approve of what congressional Republicans are doing, while 51 percent say they don't.
A full 60 percent of Democrats support their congressional leadership.
But Americans are much more ambivalent when it comes to particular issues. The public favors the Republicans when it comes to fixing the economy, 42 percent to 38 percent. Despite sequestration and calls for austerity measures.
Both parties are tied at 38 percent for the public's confidence on immigration, a number likely boosted for the Republicans by the involvement of prominent members of their party in the Senate's Gang of Eight.