Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 10, 1995                   TAG: 9504110042
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PERFORMANCES

In a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 43 percent approved of the president's performance, 39 percent disapproved and 18 percent had no opinion. By contrast, those who disapproved of Gingrich's performance outnumbered those who approved of it by a 3-2 margin.

For a sitting president, however, a 43-percent approval rating isn't exactly a resounding expression of confidence. In Clinton's case, it's about the same as the percentage of the popular vote he received in the 1992 election. And, of course, only if a third candidate with significant support runs - as Ross Perot did in '92 - could 43 percent of the vote possibly be enough to win the '96 election.

As for Gingrich, the important point about the Times/CBS poll may be the fact that - for all the attention the new speaker has drawn - a plurality of the poll's respondents, 45 percent, said they didn't know enough to form an opinion of his performance. In a way no longer true of Clinton, the jury on the speaker's performance may still be out. Americans, after all, are accustomed to rating presidents and Congress - as a whole. Nationwide approval ratings for a speaker as an individual is something new.

Other recent polls, presumably less willing to take "no opinion" for an answer and pressing harder for some kind of indication, also have found those who disapprove of Gingrich's performance to outnumber those who approve of it, though by a considerably smaller ratio. A CNN/Time Magazine poll, for example, showed that only 13 percent had no opinion. The speaker's performance met with favorable responses from 40 percent of those surveyed, and unfavorable responses from 47 percent.

But a strong majority of the same people - 58 percent - rated Congress' performance favorably, while only 37 percent rated it poor or very poor. Evidently, House Republicans' ability to pass most provisions of their Contract With America has played well with the public.

The oddity is that Gingrich, the man with the disapproval ratings, is the architect of the Contract and of the GOP unity that has pushed it through the House.

Or maybe the oddity is that anyone should bother to measure nationwide approval ratings of a House speaker. National popularity can play a role, but the real key to a speaker's power is how he's regarded by other members of Congress, especially those of his own party.