The details of the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey are beginning to trickle out, and like the USA Today/Gallup poll released today, it finds President Bush's approval rating in the mid-30s -- 34 for Gallup, 35 for ORC.

But more interestingly the poll, which is available in part from Hotline's Wakeup Call (and which I have independently confirmed), shows that 51 percent of Americans approve of the job being done by new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, compared with just 22 percent who disapprove. It's certainly true that these numbers can, at least in part, be chalked up to the positive coverage Pelosi received upon becoming the first female Speaker and the House Democrats' success in passing popular legislation in the opening hours of this Congress.

Yet this, alone, cannot explain these impressive numbers. Looking back to the last time that power changed hands in the House of Representatives back in 1995, then there was an equally recognizable if not even more well known new Speaker of the House who came in with a series of poll-tested promises that had fairly wide support among the American people.

Polling from January of that year (Gallup, 1/16-18/95) showed that, indeed, a plurality of Americans approved of the job Newt Gingrich was performing as Speaker. But the margin was tiny -- 39 percent approving, 35 percent disapproving -- and by early February (Gallup, 2/3-5/95) Gringrich's numbers slipped deep into negative territory, with 38 percent approving and 48 disapproving. Asking a slightly different question that month, The Pew Research Center found that 41 percent of Americans viewed Gingrich favorably while 37 percent viewed him unfavorably. And according to Wall Street Journal/NBC News polling, Gingrich hit his high water mark for support in April of that year when he posted a positive rating of 31 percent and a negative rating of 36 percent.

With numbers like these, it's clear that Americans' support for Nancy Pelosi, and indeed the new Democratic Congress as well, is not just about having faith in new leadership over Congress. What's more, it's not just about new blood as Speaker. It's about something far more profound than that. Americans like what Nancy Pelosi is doing as Speaker and the direction in which she, and the Democratic Party, are leading this country. While she and her party still have their work cut out for them in the weeks and months to come, they currently stand with as strong of a base within the American people as any recent Congress -- if not more so -- a fact that should instill in them a sense of fortitude and resolve as they go up against a wildly unpopular President and Republican Party.