If voters are angry at incumbents in the White House and Congress which branch prevails?

[wuushew]

Will straight ticket voting carry the day or will people flip control based on wanting to punish incumbents?

Is there any historical precedent?

[Deep13]

1. Congress. Anger at Congress...

...does not usually translate into anger for ones own representatives.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. It does in my case. My "liberal" (D) rep recently decided that the surge is a good idea.

And, that the military should be allowed "more time" to expand on it's achievements.

[TwilightZone]

3. Overall disapproval of Congress doesn't tend to influence local support as much.

People are generally happy with their own reps, but dissatisfied with Congress in general.

http://surveyusa.com/50StateTracking.html

[wuushew]

4. Maybe 1992?

Dems lost nine seats in the House and as we all remember Bush the Elder was sucking pretty hard.

Congressional approval appeared to be in the teens.

http://politicalarithmetik.blogspot.com/2007/05/congressional-approval.html

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

5. Truman squeeked out a narrow win running against the "do nothing" congress

but he was an incumbent president.

That is a rare exception. The president takes national blame. Congress is 535 local races, and the average person is okay with his own representatives.

[Didereaux]

6. "All politics is local" Tip O'Neill n/t