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The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. That is the lowest level of strong approval yet recorded for this President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19. The Approval Index has been lower only on one day during Barack Obama’s thirteen months in office (see trends). The previous low came on December 22 as the Senate was preparing to approve its version of the proposed health care legislation. The current...

Over past 7 months, Mitt Romney’s favor among Republicans has fallen off a cliff. Monthly surveys by Public Policy Polling shows that Romney’s level of support has fallen to just 48% among Republican voters from a high of 67% in May of this year. Romney polled in the 60s on the first three polls but has not reached that threshold since and now for the first time he's below 50% with the party base. I don't have any theories to explain Romney's popularity slide with Republican voters but it certainly bodes ominous for his 2012 nomination prospects if he can't...

Started our Massachusetts poll tonight...looks like it might be a real race

McCain's New Radio Ads: Obama On A 'Crusade To Bankrupt America'...

Uptick owing largely to more independents calling themselves conservative by Lydia Saad PRINCETON, NJ -- The increased conservatism that Gallup first identified among Americans last June persisted throughout the year, so that the final year-end political ideology figures confirm Gallup's initial reporting: conservatives (40%) outnumbered both moderates (36%) and liberals (21%) across the nation in 2009. More broadly, the percentage of Americans calling themselves either conservative or liberal has increased over the last decade, while the percentage of moderates has declined. Since 1992, there have been only two other years -- 2003 and 2004 -- in which the average percentage...

A poll of GOP insiders suggests that ex-AK Gov. Sarah Palin (R) has little support among the party's professional class -- and maybe that's just how she wants it. In a survey of 109 party leaders, political professionals and pundits, Palin finished 5th on the list of candidates most likely to win the party's '12 WH nomination. Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney (R) was the overwhelming choice of the Voters were asked to rank 5 candidates in the order of likeliness to capture the GOP nod. The results: Likely To Win WH'12 Nomination (First place votes) Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney 81...

Four Republican opponents lead Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) in potential general election matchups, according to a new Rasmussen survey. On top of trailing each Republican by at least 8 points and never reaching even 40% support, 55% say they hold an unfavorable opinion of the second-term senator.

Even Little-Known Democrats Seem Dangerously Underwater Fascinating: Asked, "if the election for your Member of Congress were held today, would you likely vote to re-elect Phil Hare?," only 39.5 percent of respondents in Illinois's 17th congressional district said "yes," and 47 percent said "no." This is a traditionally modestly Democratic district, where Obama carried 56 percent of the vote in 2008.

There's all sorts of speculation and back of the envelope math being done right now on the Massachusetts Senate special election and whether Republican Scott Brown might be able to pull off a surprise there. Dave Weigel reports that Rasmussen is going to be polling there tonight so that should give us a better idea but I thought it would be worth taking a look at what would happen if things played out in Masschusetts similarly to Virginia, which is a sort of Democratic worst case scenario. The Virginia exit poll showed the folks who turned out there voted for...

One underplayed aspect of this year's elections that I think could make an impact is the return of disaffected Republicans who didn't even bother coming out to vote in 2008 because they were unhappy about the nomination of John McCain. They may have felt it didn't make any difference who they voted for then, but feel differently about things now that they've seen the impact of Democratic control in Washington. On the Virginia exit poll 94% of respondents said who they voted for President last year and their responses average out to a 13.2% advantage for Bob McDonnell. Since McDonnell...

The March of bad news for the Democratic party continuances. On Sunday Rasmussen reported the number of people identifying themselves as Democrats was at a seven year low and that drop has happened every since Barack Obama was elected. Currently, 35.5% of American adults still admit that they are Democrats. It is still 1.5% more than the GOP but last December the number was. That’s down from 36.0 a month ago and from 37.8% in October. Last December the numbers were 41.6% for the Democrats and 32.8% for the GOP an 8.8% difference. Growing faster than the republicans are the...

Republican candidates start the year by opening a nine-point lead over Democrats, the GOP's biggest in several years, in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot. The new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 35% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent.

The new Rasmussen poll of the Massachusetts Senate special election, which will be held two weeks from today, gives Democratic candidate Martha Coakley an initial lead over Republican Scott Brown. But it might not be an automatic landslide in this Democratic-leaning state, with GOP voters disproportionately more enthusiastic in what could be a low-turnout election. The numbers: Coakley 50%, Brown 41%, with a ±4.5% margin of error. From the pollster's analysis: "Special elections are typically decided by who shows up to vote and it is clear from the data that Brown's supporters are more enthusiastic. In fact, among those who...

A year ago, political, cultural, economic and media pundits were united in singing President-elect Obama's praises. They assured us that by working with enlightened congressional leaders like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Obama would give us a post-racial, post-partisan, post-Bush Valhalla. There, no citizen would ever again be left wanting for decent health care, a rewarding job, a home warmed in winter and cooled in summer with green energy, a comfortable pension, or a college education. It would be an America in which our liberal leaders would finally deliver "change we can believe in" instead...

Sarah Palin almost nudged feminist's beloved Hillary out of the first place spot in the Gallup's recent Woman of the Year poll. The buzz from women who can't bring themselves to acknowledge Palin's self-made success is spiteful and loud, especially on the internet. Why is that? With the help of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, Hillary catapulted her career from a small city, small state Arkansas attorney to a failed run for president, finally settling for her present position as Obama's Secretary of Defense. Hillary has one daughter and a marriage that has seen more than its share of...

President Obama and the progressive wing of the party who dominate congress, has made identifying ones self as a Democrat is not as popular as it used to be. Witness the letter I pulled out of the Newspaper today: Dear Ann Landers, I lost my job at McDonalds last month for sleeping with the bosses daughter (I swear she looked 18). My parents are life-long progressive Democrats who live in the suburbs of San Francisco. My Father and Mother have recently been arrested for growing and selling marijuana, distribution of Cocaine, as well as Heroin. They are currently dependent on...

Politico: “He’s been underpolling Obama all year,” said Eric Boehlert of Media Matters, “People start thinking, ‘There’s something going on here.".......Obama on his own poll numbers (last month): "I'm surprised they held up as well as they did" (Video)

Well, he has been promising us a Christmas present. Republican candidates now have an eight-point lead over Democrats, their biggest lead of the year, in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot. The new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 36% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Support for GOP candidates held steady over the past week, but support for Democrats slipped by a point. The simple truth is this: the closer this federally intrusive, probably unconstitutional, health care reform nightmare gets to being a reality,...

Obama Approval Index Month-by-Month Saturday, January 02, 2010 When tracking President Obama’s job approval on a daily basis, people sometimes get so caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations that they miss the bigger picture. To look at the longer-term trends, Rasmussen Reports compiles the numbers on a full-month basis, and the results can be seen in the graphics below. The president’s Approval Index ratings fell three points in December following two-point declines in both October and November. Looking back, the president’s honeymoon ended quickly before his ratings stabilized from March through May. They tumbled in June and July as the...

Low favorables: Dems rip Rasmussen By: Alex Isenstadt January 2, 2010 05:53 PM EST Democrats are turning their fire on Scott Rasmussen, the prolific independent pollster whose surveys on elections, President Obama’s popularity and a host of other issues are surfacing in the media with increasing frequency. The pointed attacks reflect a hardening conventional wisdom among prominent liberal bloggers and many Democrats that Rasmussen Reports polls are, at best, the result of a flawed polling model and, at worst, designed to undermine Democratic politicians and the party’s national agenda. On progressive-oriented websites, anti-Rasmussen sentiment is an article of faith. “Rasmussen...

It's official: Americans admire Glenn Beck more than they admire the pope. This news, at once unsettling and unsurprising, came from the Gallup polling organization on Wednesday. Beck, the new Fox News host who has said President Obama has a "deep-seated hatred for white people" and alternately likens administration officials to Nazis and Marxists, was also more admired by Americans than Billy Graham and Bill Gates, not to mention Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. In Americans' esteem, Beck only narrowly trailed South Africa's Nelson Mandela, the man who defeated apartheid. The 45-year-old recovering alcoholic and Mormon convert has become...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, released Thursday, shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters gives President Obama an approval index of -18 percent. That figure is derived from subtracting the 24 percent of voters that strongly approve of the job that Obama is doing from the 42 percent that strongly disapprove. In the same poll, 46% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. 53 percent now disapprove. The Gallup poll, of American adults 18 years and older, has Obama's current approval rating at 51 percent. According to Gallup, Obama has averaged a 50 percent job approval rating in December. Ronald Reagan's average...

Senator Ben Nelson and his friends (of the leftist MSM) have discovered that the senator from Nebraska may have committed political suicide by voting for ObamaCare. Yahoo! News reports that, according to pollster Scott Rasmussen, Nelson would only receive 30% of the votes if elections were held today, while his (unnamed) Republican competitor could count on 61%. That’s a massive gap of 31%. It goes to show just how unpopular ObamaCare is. Nelson’s health care vote is clearly dragging his numbers down. Just 17% of Nebraska voters approve of the deal their senator made on Medicaid in exchange for his...

They’re both steely, gutsy women, admired by some and loathed by others. And when the Gallup poll asked Americans to name, without prompting, which woman they admire most, Hillary Rodham Clinton beat Sarah Palin – barely. Mrs. Clinton won “most admired woman” for the 14th time since 1993, the year she became first lady, and has continued to win most of the time as a New York senator and now Secretary of State. She took the prize with 16 percent. Former Alaska Governor Palin, who debuted on the Top 10 list last year at No. 2, came in second again...

If you needed more confirmation that entrenched, nine-term incumbent Earl Pomeroy is in a lot of trouble in the upcoming election year (after ignoring his constituents and casting a vote for an unpopular health care bill this last year, among other things) I have the line on some private polling that shows Pomeroy floundering even against an unnamed opponent.

I just call it the Cheney Option because it recalls a time when we treated terrorists as unlawful combatants rather than defendants. Apparently, a healthy majority of Americans agree with that approach. Rasmussen surveyed likely voters about how they would like to see Umar Abdulmutallab interrogated, and 58% said bring on the drips: Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. voters say waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques should be used to gain information from the terrorist who attempted to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 30% oppose the use of such...

That's what voters say, according to today's (Rasmussen survey:)Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. voters say waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques should be used to gain information from the terrorist who attempted to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 30% oppose the use of such techniques, and another 12% are not sure. There's this, too: Seventy-one percent (71%) of all voters think the attempt by the Nigerian Muslim to blow up the airliner as it landed in Detroit should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act. Only 22%...

(CNSNews.com) – American Jews and Christians hold views about illegal immigration that are largely at odds with those of their spiritual leaders, according to a new poll from Zogby International. The poll showed that while most religious leaders saw illegal immigration as a problem caused by barriers to legal immigration, most worshippers thought a lack of enforcement of current law was the problem; and while leaders thought employers needed access to more immigrant labor, rank-and-file members thought employers needed to attract more domestic workers. Steven A. Camarota, the research director for the nonpartisan Center for Immigration Studies said the results...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18

Rasmussen's health-care polling results since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid orchestrated the Christmas Eve vote are full of undeniably bad news for Democrats. In roughly ascending order of bad news (if one is a Democrat)... Likely voters oppose Obamacare by more than the (18-point) margin by which Ronald Reagan beat Walter Mondale: 58 percent to 39 percent. There are far more likely voters who "strongly" oppose Obamacare (46 percent) than there are likely voters who support it even "somewhat" (39 percent). Only 24 percent of likely voters think that the quality of health care would get better under Obamacare, while...

The good news for Senator Ben Nelson is that he doesn't have to face Nebraska voters until 2012. If Governor Dave Heineman challenges Nelson for the Senate job, a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows the Republican would get 61% of the vote while Nelson would get just 30%. Nelson was reelected to a second Senate term in 2006 with 64% of the vote. Nelson's health care vote is clearly dragging his numbers down. Just 17% of Nebraska voters approve of the deal their senator made on Medicaid in exchange for his vote in support of the plan. Overall, 64%...

For the second straight week, only 29% of U.S. voters say the country is heading in the right direction, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Last week’s right direction finding was the lowest level measured since February. The percentage of voters who felt the country is heading in the right direction remained in the narrow range of 31% to 35% from July to early November. From late November until mid-December, confidence in the country’s current course held steady at 30%. The majority of voters (67%) continue to believe the nation is heading down the wrong track, the...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16

African-Americans are extremely supportive of President Obama, but their enthusiasm appears to have dramatically dropped from earlier this year, according to a new national poll. The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, released Tuesday, also indicates that Obama's presidency appears to have made blacks more optimistic about race relations, but less than one in five believe the new president has ushered in a new era of race relations in the country. More than nine in 10 blacks questioned in the poll approve of the job Obama's doing in the White House, far higher than 42 percent of whites who approve of...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 26% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15

Poll: Nelson's Abortion Funding Compromise Costs Him With Nebraska Voters Lincoln, NE -- Until his recent sellout on abortion funding, Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson was a darling of the pro-life movement as the lone consistent pro-life Democrat in the Senate. Now, a new poll shows him losing massive support and he would lose by a lopsided margin in his 2012 bid for re-election. http://www.lifenews.com/state4684.html

Ah, the wages of pork: The good news for Senator Ben Nelson is that he doesn’t have to face Nebraska voters until 2012. If Governor Dave Heineman challenges Nelson for the Senate job, a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows that Heineman would get 61% of the vote while Nelson would get just 30%. The health care vote is clearly dragging Nelson’s numbers down. Just 17% of Nebrasaka voters approve of the deal their Senator made on Medicaid in exchange for his vote. Overall, 64% oppose the health care legislation, including 53% who are Strongly Opposed. Fifty-six percent (56%) believe...

She's on vacation now in Hawaii, so what does she care? But as the first calendar year of the new White House regime draws to a close, First Lady Michelle Obama is experiencing the same drop in poll numbers as her husband. She's not elected, of course, and not charged at least officially with making the tough executive decisions that come out of the Oval Office. As a result, first ladies have typically fared better in different public opinion polls than their more controversial husbands. And now even as the female Harvard lawyer in the family and the one with...

December 24, 2009 This Christmas, 78% of Americans Identify as Christian Over time, fewer Americans identify as Christian; more have no religious identity by Frank NewportPRINCETON, NJ -- This Christmas season, 78% of Americans identify with some form of Christian religion, a proportion that has been declining in recent decades. The major reason for this decline has been an increase in the percentage of Americans claiming no religious identity, now at 13% of all adults.

There's a new "chill" that has nothing to do with claims of global warming or climate change and everything to do with the failing confidence Americans feel in their own freedoms, according to a new poll. "More Americans this month felt that there was more of a climate of fear over their freedom of association – with more than one in three – 36 percent – saying that they believed Americans had reason to fear punishment or retribution based on who their friends were or who they met with. This is chilling stuff!" said Fritz Wenzel of Wenzel Strategies. The...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, released Thursday, shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16 (see trends). Thirty-eight percent (38%) now believe the economic stimulus plan passed earlier this year has hurt the economy. Just 30% believe it helped. That’s the first time since the legislation passed that a plurality offered a negative assessment. Most voters (52%) are concerned that the government will do too much in terms of responding to...

As President Obama arrives in Copenhagen hoping to seal an elusive deal on climate change, his approval rating on dealing with global warming has crumbled at home and there is broad opposition to spending taxpayer money to encourage developing nations to curtail their energy use, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. .... At the same time, there's growing negativity toward the president's handling of the broader global warming issue. Around the 100-day mark of Obama's presidency, 61 percent approved of the way he was dealing with the issue. Approval slumped to 54 percent in June and to 45...

Thank you for voting! Yes. I believe they're doing all they can to protect Americans from acts of terror. 14% (690 votes) No. I think the Obama administration has been ignoring the ever-present danger of terror. 78% (3,708 votes) Not sure, but I'm very concerned that a 9/11-type of terror attack will happen soon. 7% (317 votes) Undecided 1% (63 votes) Total Votes: 4,778

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, released Thursday, shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16 (see trends). Check out our review of last week’s key polls to see “What They Told Us.” The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Updates are also available...

One might expect Democrats to be euphoric during this holiday season. After recapturing control of Congress in 2006, and last year taking back the White House by electing America's first African-American president, Democrats are now on the verge of passing a historic health care reform law. But instead of celebrating, they are bitterly divided. Former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean and liberal bloggers are urging the Senate to defeat the health care bill. Many are criticizing President Barack Obama for compromising too much, saying the proposal doesn't go far enough, while more moderate and conservative Democrats are petrified the bill...

Voter support for offshore oil drilling remains as strong as it was during last year’s presidential election, but many also continue to believe individual states should be able to stop it off their own coastlines. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 68% of U.S. voters believe offshore oil drilling should be allowed. Just 20% oppose drilling for oil off the coast of the United States, with another 12% undecided. These numbers are virtually unchanged from findings just after Election Day in November 2008. Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party favor offshore drilling much more...

Generic Congressional Vote Rasmussen Reports Republicans 44, Democrats 36 Republicans +8

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16.

Washington (CNN) - Despite the bruising battle over their health care reform proposals, congressional Democrats have maintained an advantage over their Republican counterparts on one key measure, according to a new national poll. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday indicates that a bare majority of Americans, 51 percent, believe that the Democrats' policies are good for the country, with 46 percent saying that those policies would take the country in the wrong direction.