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Hope and Change has struck the Democratic Party in a big — and unexpected — way. Gallup analyzes its poll data from 2010 on party affiliation to look at the shift in each state, and the news is almost uniformly bad for Democrats. Almost every state has had a decrease in voter affiliation for Democrats, most of those significant, and the number of solidly-blue states has been cut in half: Gallup’s analysis of party affiliation in the U.S. states shows a marked decline in the number of solidly Democratic states from 2008 (30) to 2010 (14). The number of politically...

President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats learned at least one big lesson in the November elections: What the independent voter gives, the independent voter can also take away. But now, the same temperamental bloc that threw House Democrats out of power appear to be in a giving mood again - at least as far as Obama is concerned. That unpredictable, cranky group of voters who helped carry the president into office two years ago before turning against him in dramatic fashion, may be turning back in Obama’s direction even more quickly. A series of national polls released over the last...

Just minutes after shots rang out in Tucson two Saturdays ago, liberal "journalists" began to tie former VP candidate Sarah Palin to the shooting, in the complete absence of facts. After it was learned that the shooter, Jared Loughner, was most likely liberal and did not listen to Sarah Palin at all, left-wing pundits still continued to blame Palin. Unfortunately, it worked to a large degree. A poll released yesterday found that 35% of Americans believe that Palin is at least partially to blame for the shooting. 35% of Americans bought into the lie. 35% of Americans must be morons....

Occasionally, political pundits get so wrapped up in their analysis that they don’t think through all of the implications of their commentary. That happened to Mark Penn, longtime Democratic pollster, in his appearance on Hardball last night, in the most charitable explanation possible. Eyeblast’s Joe Schoffstall clips this magic moment from the discussion with Chris Matthews on how disconnected Barack Obama has become from the American electorate, and what it will take for him to reconnect, using Bill Clinton as an example:(video of Chris Matthews show) President Clinton reconnected with Oklahoma. And the President right now he seems removed. And...

Generic Congressional Ballot Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 47%, Democrats 36% Monday, January 10, 2011 Email to a Friend AdvertisementRepublicans hold an 11-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending January 9, 2011. That’s up one point from last week and six points from the week before. It's the widest gap between the two parties since right before Election Day. New Rasmussen Reports telephone polling finds that 47% of Likely U.S. Voters nationwide say they would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 36% would choose the Democrat instead. Last week, Republicans posted a similar...

Nearly six in 10 Americans say the country's heated political rhetoric is not to blame for the Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead and critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, according to a CBS News poll. In the wake of the shooting, much focus has been put on the harsh tone of politics in Washington and around the country, particularly after a contentious midterm election. Rhetoric and imagery from both Republicans and Democrats have included gun-related metaphors, but the majority of the country isn't connecting the shooting to politics.

Every year, researchers from the British Social Attitudes survey ask a representative sample of British people whether they regard themselves as belonging to any particular religion and, if so, to which one? When the survey first asked these questions in 1985, 63% of the respondents answered that they were Christians, compared with 34% who said they had no religion (the rest belonged to non-Christian religions).Today, a quarter of a century on, there has been a steady and remarkable turnaround. In the latest 2010 BSA report, published earlier this month, only 42% said they were Christians while 51% now say they...

If you're in a room of 100 people, odds are likely about 40 think God created humans about 10,000 years ago, part of a philosophy called creationism, according to a Gallup poll reported Friday (Dec. 17). That number is slightly lower than in years past and down from a high of 47 percent in both 1993 and 1999. And 38 percent of Americans, the poll estimates, believe God guided the process that brought humans from "cavemen" to today's incarnation over millions of years, while 16 percent think humans evolved over millions of years, without any divine intervention. This secular view,...

A fresh Gallup Poll released this morning reveals that somehow 13% of Americans still approve of the job being done by Congress. The new Gallup survey did not identify those people, understandably. However, even though it is a surprisingly high number given the work not done there in recent years, the 13% is a record low job approval for Congress since Gallup began compiling such data in 1974. The same Dec. 10-12 survey finds a record high 83% of Americans disapprove of the job being done by the folks on Capitol Hill, also the worst

Republicans may have made major gains in the November elections, but they have yet to win the hearts and minds of the American people, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

According to opinion polls (mainly Public Policy Polling) the race is divided between three main candidates: former Governor Mitt Romney (leading in eleven states), former Governor Mike Huckabee (leading in nine states), and former Governor Sarah Palin (leading in seven states). The most fascinating result is that Mike Huckabee is leading in Sarah Palin's Alaska. Three other candidacies are limited in their appeal to certain regions: Newt Gingrich (leading in two states), Tim Pawlenty (leading in one state), and Senator DeMint (leading in one state). Three of the four states are their own, and nineteen states have not even been...

Last week’s reversal on offshore oil drilling by Barack Obama didn’t go over well with likely US voters, according to a new Rasmussen survey. Sixty percent support offshore drilling in principle, and 48% oppose the ban directly, with only 35% supporting Obama’s reversal. A majority expect economic damage and higher fuel prices as a result: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 54% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the new seven-year ban will increase gas prices, while just 11% think it will make gas prices go down. Twenty-five percent (25%) expect the ban to have no impact on...

Bush job approval rating higher than Obama's By: James Hohmann December 6, 2010 01:46 PM EST George W. Bush’s job approval rating as president has spiked to 47 percent, according to a Gallup poll released Monday. That’s one point higher than President Barack Obama’s job approval rating in a poll taken the same week. This is the first time Gallup asked Americans to retrospectively rate Bush’s job performance. And it was a stunning turnaround from his low point of 25 percent in November 2008. The 47 percent number is 13 points higher than the last Gallup poll taken before Bush...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 22% 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 -19...Overall, 43% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. Fifty-six percent (56%) disapprove.

A Public Policy Polling survey of 400 "typical" Republican primary voters found: 2012 President: 21% Palin 19% Gingrich 18% Romney 16% Huckabee 5% Paul 5% Pawlenty 3% Thune The margin of error was 4.9 percent.

A new poll taken for the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible reveals that a majority of those under 35 in the United Kingdom don't even know about the work, which has been described as a significant part of the estimated 100 million Bible sales annually, making it the best best-seller, ever. "Yet this is a work which was far more influential than Shakespeare in the development and spread of English," a spokesman for the King James Bible Trust told the Christian Institute in a recent report. The Christian Institute's report said the translation, which will...

McClatchy/Marists poll also says 56% of Democrat-leaning independents want a primary challenge for Obama WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama emerges from a bruising midterm election with uncertain prospects for the next one in 2012, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll. Nearly half of his own base — 45 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents — want someone to challenge him for the Democratic nomination, according to the poll.

Fewer than 3 in 10 support law banning handguns except for police and authorized personnel PRINCETON, NJ -- For the second year in a row, a record-low 44% of Americans say laws governing the sale of firearms should be made more strict, while 42% say gun laws should be kept as they are now. Twelve percent say gun laws should be made less strict. Americans' support for stricter gun control laws has gradually declined over the last two decades, from 78% when this question was first asked in 1990 to 49% in 2008, and 44% in 2009 and again this...

Zogby Interactive: Obama Falls to 39%, As Support from Democrats Continues to Slide; He Trails Romney, J. Bush & Gingrich in '12 Those Saying U.S. on Wrong Track Hits High Under Obama of 69% UTICA, New York - President Barack Obama's job approval rating has dropped to the lowest point of his Presidency at 39%, and in potential match-ups with Republicans in 2012, he trails Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and Newt Gingrich and is just one point ahead of Sarah Palin. The percentage of likely voters saying the U.S. is on the wrong track is now the highest since Obama...

Turns out voters were not simply satisfied to spank the Democratic president and his party in the Nov. 2 midterm elections with historic losses in the House of Representatives. Obama’s job approval rating as calculated by the latest Zogby Poll has now dropped to 39%, a new low for his 22-month presidency that began with so much hope, excitement and poll numbers up around 70. As recently as Sept. 20, his job approval was 49%. A whopping 60% now disapprove of Barack Obama’s job, up from 51% disapproval on Sept. 20.