(Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- There may be some evidence that the President's continuing campaign against a "do-nothing" Congress is swaying voters.
A new poll out from Quinnipiac University boosts his approval rating up to 47 percent.
The President continued trying to shame House Republicans into passing pieces of his jobs plan, with a media event in front of the Key Bridge, which is structurally deficient and in need of repairs.
The Senate will likely vote Thursday on the $60 billion transportation chunk of the President's jobs bill. But it's unanimously opposed by Republicans -- and a few Democrats -- who object to new spending and a surtax on millionaires to pay for it.
In the shadow of the bridge, the President mocked House Republicans for passing a bill affirming "in God we trust" as the country's motto -- while more than a million construction workers are searching for jobs. "I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work."
House Republicans say cutting taxes and regulation will create jobs, but that their bills have gone nowhere. "They're stuck in the Senate," said Majority Leader and Virginia Republican Rep. Eric Cantor. "That's where the jobs are."
Two construction contractors rebuilding a historic Georgetown home think the President's just playing politics. "He was going to rebuild America, but I haven't seen it said Bob Long of DLW Contracting out of Haymarket, VA.
"He's a good talker," says his partner Lyle Walker about the President. "He says what you want to hear. But it never happens."
They're even more mad that Presidential security has caught their supply truck on the other side of the bridge.
But among the hundreds of unemployed and union workers invited to see the President's speech, there's pride and support for the President's continuing campaign to pass his jobs plan, even if it is just in pieces. "We need these jobs, says Jack Taylor of the Plumbers and Gasfitters Local 5. "We need to get started. We can't wait longer."
That 47 percent approval rating for the President we mentioned is far from where he would like to be. But it's way better than the woeful 41 percent approval a Quinnipiac University poll found for him in early October. The polling institute says "he seems to be improving in voters' eyes almost across the board."
President Obama also is looking better in the Quinnipiac survey in matchups against potential Republican nominees:
• 47 - 42 percent over Romney, compared to a 46 - 42 percent Romney lead October 5;
• 52 - 36 percent over Perry, up from a 45 - 44 percent tie last month;
• 50 - 40 percent over Cain, who was not included in a matchup last month;
• 52 - 37 percent over Gingrich, who was not matched last month.
Written and Reported by Bruce Leshan
9News Now & wusa9.com