Susan Page

USA TODAY

Vice President Pence stands alone.

In a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, Americans say they have mostly unfavorable impressions of just about everybody on a list of public figures and institutions — except, that is, for the vice president, who has become a familiar figure in interviews on Sunday TV shows and elsewhere as he explains and defends President Trump.

Only Mike Pence scored a net positive rating, with 47% of those surveyed saying they had a generally favorable impression of him and 35% a mostly unfavorable one. The rest were undecided. That 11-point advantage sets him apart from everyone else on the survey, including his boss. Trump's favorable rating has improved a bit since our December poll, but it's still narrowly in negative territory: 45% favorable, 47% unfavorable.

That said, Trump is faring much better than his 2016 Democratic opponent. Hillary Clinton's favorability rating is now 35%-55%, a 20-point deficit that is 7 points worse than views of her soon after the election.

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Impressions of Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a leader on progressive causes, break even at 34%-34%. More than one in five say they don't know enough about her to have an opinion.

Neither major political party does well. Republicans are viewed unfavorably by 11 points (37%-48%), which at least is better than the Democrats, seen unfavorably by 16 points, 36%-52%. Congress does the worst of all. By 2-1, Americans give Congress a thumbs-down: 52% have an unfavorable impression, just 26% a favorable one.

And the news media?

We're in negative territory, too: 50% unfavorable, 37% favorable.

The poll of 1,000 registered voters, taken Wednesday through Sunday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.