Free Republic

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.