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The latest USA Today/Pew survey shows Obamacare polling as poorly as it ever has: Views of ACA Little Changed. As other recent national polls have shown, including the April health care tracking survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the recent surge in signups for the new health care exchanges has had little impact on public opinion about the Affordable Care Act. In fact, the share disapproving of the law (55%) is as high as it ever has been in the four-year history of the law. Just 41% approve of the 2010 health care law.

During a talk to the U.S. embassy staff in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the first stop on his trip to Africa, Secretary of State John Kerry remarked about what he called the "different cross-currents of modernity" and the challenges they present on the African continent. The comments contain a veiled reference to religion, and the part that religion might be playing in some of the current conflicts in Africa: This is a time here in Africa where there are a number of different cross-currents of modernity that are coming together to make things even more challenging. Some people believe that...

In the press release accompanying the administration's Obamacare enrollment report yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius declared that the 8 million people who had signed up for private health plans in the law's exchanges had "exceeded expectations." That depends on which expectations you're referring to. Looked at nationally, it's true enough, at least if you count sign-ups rather than paid enrollments... But it's also worth remembering that Obamacare enrollment varies quite a bit by state. And some states beat their enrollment projections handily, while others lagged far behind initial estimates. An analysis released today by the health consultancy...

With the midterm elections six months away, Democrats are burdened by an uneven economic recovery and a stubbornly unpopular health care law. Perhaps equally important, Barack Obama’s political standing is in some respects weaker than it was at a comparable point in the 2010 campaign, which ended with the Republicans gaining a majority in the House. A national survey by the Pew Research Center and USA TODAY, conducted April 23-27 among 1,501 adults (including 1,162 registered voters), finds that 47% of registered voters support the Republican candidate in their district or lean Republican, while 43% favor the Democratic candidate or...

Most voters say ObamaCare will play an important role in their vote in this year’s elections, and over half are more inclined to back the candidate who opposes the health care law. That’s according to a Fox News poll released Monday. The new poll asks voters what they would do if the only difference between two congressional candidates is that one promises to fight for the health care law and the other promises to fight against it. By a 53-39 percent margin, more voters say they would back the anti-ObamaCare candidate. Independents, always a key voting bloc, would back that...

The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) solicited millions in donations from private health care companies for a nonprofit organization to promote Obamacare, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO released a report on Monday following a request from Republican senators to investigate HHS’s coordination with Enroll America, a “nonprofit, nonpartisan” organization founded by former White House staffers. The report noted that former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius contacted the CEOs of five organizations last year to “solicit support” for Enroll America, which it would use to promote Obamacare. Additionally, the report links the...

The Internal Revenue Service has revoked the tax-exemption for a conservative charity, saying the group’s criticism of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry violated rules against political activity. The Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty engaged in “deliberate and consistent intervention in political campaigns,” according to the IRS decision released Friday and first reported by USA Today... Tax-exempt groups are restricted from engaging in certain political activity, including participating in partisan campaigns in support or opposition to a candidate. The IRS said the Patrick Henry Center violated this rule, in part, by publishing “alerts” on its website that highlighted columns by...

A day after reports that House Speaker John A. Boehner is telling fundraisers he is determined to get an immigration bill done this year, the Ohio Republican’s spokesman walked those comments back slightly, saying any action will still depend on President Obama. “Nothing has changed. As he’s said many times, the Speaker believes step-by-step reform is important, but it won’t happen until the president builds trust and demonstrates a commitment to the rule of law,” said Brendan Buck, a Boehner spokesman. Early this year Mr. Boehner released a series of principles for a broad immigration overhaul, and it seemed like...

Americans have the Tea Party, which isn’t a party at all, but British establishmentarians are worried about a similar movement that is an actual party. The UK Independence Party or UKIP (pronounced “u-kip”) could have real impact on the European Union elections next month. UKIP is made up mostly, though not exclusively, of former Tory voters who regard Prime Minister David Cameron and his allies as weak-kneed leaders, who neither listen to their base nor fight for the conservative values they profess. UKIP began as a home for British voters skeptical of the value of membership in the European Union...

<p>Russia is “the only country in the world capable of turning the U.S.A. into radioactive dust.”</p> <p>That was the declaration made recently on a major Russian state TV channel by the popular anchorman Dmitry Kiselyov. The coarse tone in which he delivered this message was every bit as menacing as the actual words...</p>

With about 20 months to go before the Iowa precinct caucuses, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul lead the pack for the Republican presidential nomination. Three possible GOP candidates capture double-digit support among self-identified Republicans: Christie receives 15 percent, which puts him just ahead of Bush and Paul both at 14 percent. Next, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan receives nine percent, followed by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at eight percent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at seven percent, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum...

As Mein Kampf makes clear, Hitler sought to unite all the people of German speech and culture into one state, or Reich, preferably by peaceful negotiation, otherwise by war and conquest... Today’s drift toward war with Russia seems like a replay of the past. Putin is a Russian nationalist, who believes in a strong Stalinist state. His goal is to reverse the events of 1989–the end of the Soviet state and dissolution of its enormous empire... ...to wield against the various weak states that were part of the U.S.S.R... All have ethnic Russian minorities, who speak the language, boast of...

Putin: Russia’s great propagandist Standing proudly against the entire world had revived the essence of the Soviet Union, she wrote. “It is not Crimea that has returned. We have returned. Home. To the USSR.” Since the Crimea annexation, there have been frequent moves that symbolize a Soviet revival... In March Mr. Putin announced the re-establishment of “Prepared for Labor and Defense”, a Soviet-era system under which students, officials and workers took part in nationwide sports competitions. The same week, the government said it would restore the Stalin-era All-Russian Exhibition Centre to its former glory... Even members of the Duma, Russia’s...

<p>The control of information is part of Putin’s strategy to rebuild post-Soviet Russia through aggression, writes Roman Zvarcyh, a legal adviser and deputy campaign manager to Ukrainian presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko, in an e-mail. “The annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the subsequent military subterfuge that we are now witnessing in the eastern provinces of Ukraine is the culmination of an information war that Moscow has been aggressively promoting since the events of the Orange Revolution in 2004,” Zvarcyh says. “The general thrust of this propaganda campaign is to undermine any sense of Ukrainian national identity, particularly in those regions that were historically victimized by successive waves of Russification.” ...</p>

Edward Lucas: I hope I'm wrong but historians may look back and say this was the start of World War III 'Vladimir Putin is striking at the heart of the West''We can chose to surrender any responsibility we have to protect Ukraine and the Baltic states''Or we can mount a last-ditch attempt to deter Russia from furthering its imperial ambitions''If we choose to resist Putin, we will risk a terrifying miltary escalation''I do not think it an exaggeration to say this could bring us to the brink of nuclear war' It is about brute power. It is about whether Putin’s...

...The House speaker's plan would ask lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled legislature to submit to voters on Nov. 4 a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would create a 3 percent income tax surcharge on personal income exceeding $1 million a year. That would be added to the existing personal tax rate, which stands at 5 percent for all taxpayers but is scheduled to drop to 3.75 percent next year... ...Rauner's own populist-tinged ballot initiative, a petition drive to put a constitutional amendment before voters in November to limit legislators to a maximum of eight years in office. In pushing...

South Carolina Tea Party Leader Endorses One of Lindsey Graham's Challengers The possibility that opponents of Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will coalesce around a single challenger in the June Republican U.S. Senate primary in South Carolina took an interesting turn on Monday when an influential Tea Party leader in the state endorsed attorney Bill Connor, who has lagged in both the polls and fundraising. In his endorsement Monday, Joe Dugan, founder of the Myrtle Beach Tea Party and executive producer of the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition Convention, said "I have known Bill [Connor] for more than five years ..."...

Mayor expected to sign order curtailing police-ICE collaboration Mayor Nutter is expected to sign an executive order tomorrow that will significantly limit collaboration between Philadelphia police and federal immigration authorities. The order is expected to preclude police from honoring detainer requests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement except in cases where a person is convicted of a first- or second-degree felony involving violence, and only when ICE secures a warrant to support the detainer...

According to a CNN/ORC International survey released Friday, President Barack Obama holds a three point advantage over Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the contest for Ohio's much fought over 18 electoral votes. Fifty-percent of likely voters questioned in the poll say they are backing the president, with 47% supporting the former Massachusetts governor. Obama's three-point edge is within the survey's sampling error. The survey was conducted Tuesday through Thursday... ... with 7% saying they could still change their mind on their choice for president. Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode...

The NewsmaxZogby Tracking Poll released Tuesday finds Romney ahead in the national race by 1 point — 47 percent to Obama's 46 percent. Pollster John Zogby reports: "Undecided voters seem to be breaking toward the challenger with Romney gaining 3 points since the beginning, and Obama losing 1 point. Romney is picking up support among independents..."