For all the ink being spilled on the low approval ratings of President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the polls, one fascinating poll released earlier this month has gotten surprisingly little public attention. That is the Harris Poll that for 39 years in a row has been measuring public confidence in American institutions. A sample of 1,016 adults were asked by phone whether they had “a great deal,” “only some,” or “hardly any” confidence in the people in charge of running various American institutions.

At the top of the heap? The military. Forty-seven percent of Americans said they had a great deal of confidence in its leaders. The institution that came next as far as inspiring confidence was small business – 45% of respondents had a great deal of confidence in its leaders, and only 6% said they had “hardly any” confidence in small business.

Near the bottom of the list, by comparison, were organized labor and law firms. Only 12% of Americans had a great deal of confidence in the leaders of organized labor, and only 10% had a great deal of confidence in the leaders of law firms.

The pollster notes that “at 30 percent, confidence in the leaders of organized religion is at its highest level since 1975 (32%) and represents a major turnaround since 2003 when only 19 percent had a great deal of confidence.”

As for President Bush, the base of those with “a great deal” of confidence in the people in charge of running the White House – i.e., in him – was, at 25%.That’s nothing to write home about. But Mr. Bush can console himself with the news that he has more support than either “the press”- in which only 14% have a great deal of confidence – or Congress, which, at 10% is mired at the bottom of the poll with the lawyers.

We wouldn’t want to read too much into any one poll. But experience has taught us that the American people as a whole have a collective wisdom, a way of sorting the wheat from the chaff. We heard about this poll from the Armed Forces Press Service, itself part of the military, which reports that the Rochester, N.Y.-based poll wasn’t paid for by any client. And while we wouldn’t take any partisan message away from a poll in which the Republican-controlled Congress is one of the least popular institutions, it seems to us that the relatively high rankings for the military, small business, and organized religion and the relatively low ones for organized labor and lawyers are an indicator that for all the hand wringing about the president’s sagging approval ratings, the American people’s values have a conservatism about them that transcends political trends.