47 Percent Have Unfavorable Opinion of Polls, According to Poll

Politicians and political commentators also not viewed favorably

As rough a P.R. problem Wall Street financial institutions face, this election season features a new whipping post this election season: politicians.

Americans express more unfavorable views of "politicians" than just about any of the people, policies or institutions asked about in a year of Washington Post-ABC News favorability polls.

Fully 71 percent of all Americans — and eight in 10 political independents — have negative views of politicians, including Democrats, Republicans and any other stripe. Only the direction of the economy came in for more negative reviews — with a 74 percent negative assessment of the direction of the U.S. economy late last year. Congress and Wall Street financial institutions were close behind.