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The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 47% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty-one percent (51%) disapprove. The latest figures include 34% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 43% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -9. (see trends). Regular updates are posted Monday through Friday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily email update). Rasmussen Reports invites you to be a part of our first-ever Citizen-Sourced National Midterm Election Polling Project. Learn more about how you can contribute. Now...

One-party rule has wreaked havoc in the state, and voters might turn to a new crop of Republicans. A visit to the semiannual meetings of the national committees of the two major parties makes you realize that even in the polarizing Age of Trump, a midterm election isn’t one national election but 50 state ones. At last month’s Republican National Committee meeting in Austin, Texas, the mood ranged from optimistic to ready to ready for a funeral On the one hand there was Maryland, where despite the fact that Donald Trump won only 34 percent in 2016, GOP governor Larry...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….at least in the eyes of the media and Feminists. The parallels between Sarah Palin and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez are striking. Both are attractive, spirited women who came from humble, working class families. Both launched political careers when they were in their late 20’s. And both were instantly thrust into the national spotlight. But while the media and Feminists have showered Ocasio Cortez with love letters, bouquets of flowers, and boxes of chocolates, they showered Palin with rocks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails. One would have to be quite naïve...

Like every presidential election that liberals lose, years later we’re still hearing about how unfair it all was. Of course, the favorite complaint of liberals this time around is “Russia did it!” Even if you accept for the sake of argument that Russia wanted Trump to win and hacked John Podesta’s email (and neither of those assertions may be true), buying some inconsequential Facebook ads for both sides and revealing the contents of John Podesta’s emails (none of which turned into truly major stories) wasn’t exactly a game changer. Liberals also noted that Hillary would have won had the election...

There were actually two polls about illegal immigrants voting published this week, inspired by news from San Francisco that the, ahem, “undocumented” would be allowed to vote in school board elections. (San Fran isn’t the first American city to allow that, by the way.) The first survey I saw was one conducted by The Hill and HarrisX showing majorities in both parties opposed to the idea — although of course one party’s majority was much more robust than the other’s. Ninety-one percent of Republicans polled said they opposed giving the right to vote to noncitizens, as did 54 percent...

In 2014, a lot of Kansas Democrats were convinced that Gov. Sam Brownback was toast. He ranked as one of the least popular governors in the country heading into that election. His tax cuts were widely derided as too much, too fast. The state was facing mounting budget deficits. A governor who had proclaimed himself to be pro-education suddenly was viewed as something else. On the morning of the election, the respected political forecasting site FiveThirtyEight projected Democrat Paul Davis as having an 80 percent likelihood of winning the race. But we all know how that election turned out. Davis...

It's not what you don't know that can hurt you; it's what you think you know that just ain’t so that will kill you. Time has taught me that this piece of “country” wisdom is as important as any in the pursuit of public policy. Ignorance based on false facts is deadly in public policy. Take the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact as an example. The National Popular Vote plan is an interstate compact in which the compacting states agree to award their electoral votes to the person who gets the most votes in all 50 states. It is based...

This will be a weekly post. Count remains at 44.

Michael Cohen is the rabbit being pulled out of Robert Mueller’s largely empty hat, the rabbit who thinks he was sitting on the goose that laid the golden egg all along Former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen looks more like a singing canary than a rabbit, but he’s the rabbit Robert Mueller III is pulling out of the hat. People are wondering why Cohen waited so long before turning up at CNN with scratchy audio recordings he claims to have secretly recorded on former, unsuspecting client Donald J. Trump. It’s the Midterms that kept Mike The Rabbit waiting so long.

With the political world deeply focused on the question of whether the Trump administration comprises a gang of Russian pawns, less attention has been devoted to more mundane questions, such as what ever happened to Trump's economic policy? As it happens, economists are keeping their eye on that ball, and their conclusion is that it's in a bad way. More specifically, they recognize that Trump's policy is aimed heavily at achieving annual economic growth of more than 3%. During the presidential campaign, Trump promised growth of 3.5% a year, and sometimes even 4%. There's no disagreement that a sustained growth...

President Trump on Friday met with members of the National Security Council about threats to U.S. elections, an issue that has attracted significant attention since Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Trump convened the meeting to “receive updates on the whole-of-government approach his Administration is implementing to safeguard our Nation’s elections,” according to a statement from the White House issued Friday evening. A host of cabinet officials attended the meeting, including Secretary of State Mike Pence, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, as well as John...

Tucker Carlson commented on the apparent drastic change in Democratic Party priorities over the years, which has led to some (more like most) on the left supporting "open border" policies. Carlson said Democrats used to have a "clear focus" that "American citizens were the party's priority." Now, he said that "Americans are an afterthought," and challenged his viewership to find a Democrat running for election on the subjects of the public school "collapse", declining middle class or opioid epidemic. He said Democrats instead understand they need "reliable new voters" who won't make "difficult demands" -- and therefore, "immigration is the...

Forget the Russian government — foreign nationals are increasingly gaining the ability to influence American elections more directly. They’re being granted the right to vote. From Boston, where the city council is debating the move, to San Francisco, where noncitizens gained the right earlier this month in school-board elections, jurisdictions are looking to expand the boundaries of the electorate beyond its citizens.

One of the most obvious reasons for the failure of Hillary Clinton to win the presidency in 2016 stems from the former Secretary of State’s longstanding reputation as one of the most corrupt and crooked politicians of our modern era. Clinton, who rose to power at her husband’s side, has long been on the shadowy, clandestine side of American political theater, having founded The Clinton Foundation as a charitable organization through which the former First Lady could funnel illicit funds and wield power from behind the virtue signaling shield of philanthropy. Of course, it only took a few decades for...

Daughnworks247 encapsulates a media cycle at Trump-Speed: In the last 30 hours: 1. President Trump dropped a MOAB on the state of Georgia for Brian Kemp, and wiped the floor with the establishment GOPe, winning by 39 points. 2. President Travels to Kansas City, giving the speech which made us all cry, to the VFW. Embraces a 94 year old Sargeant and we immediately fall in love. 3. Our sheer perfection of a FLOTUS stops in Nashville at a children’s hospital. On the way back CNN reporter asks Stephanie Grisham about the Cohen tapes and tries to take a hit...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A political analysis organization changed its ratings of multiple congressional races Tuesday, including West Virginia’s U.S. Senate and 3rd Congressional District contests. Sabato’s Crystal Ball, part of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, changed its ratings of the two races from “toss up” to “leans Democrat,” which is good news for U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and state Sen. Richard Ojeda. Manchin is running against Republican candidate and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey for his second full term in the Senate. Ojeda, D-Logan, who caught the attention of national news organizations prior to and following the...

If there's a "blue wave" coming in 2018, someone may have forgotten to tell Oregon's voters. A Republican challenger has pulled even with blue state Oregon's Democratic incumbent governor, according to a new poll. The news comes as a surprise in a state that hasn’t seen a Republican governor since late 1980s, sparking fears of the end of Democratic Party’s total domination of the state. The poll indicates that Republican state Rep. Knute Buehler is waging a serious challenge to Gov. Kate Brown, a vocal critic of President Trump, with both candidates getting support from 45 percent of likely voters,...

Former state Rep. Geoff Duncan appears to have pulled off an upset win against state Sen. David Shafer, narrowly securing the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. According to unofficial results from Secretary of State’s office, Duncan won by less than one percent of the vote. The Cumming Republican held Shafer off in an extremely close race – one that Shafer almost won outright with nearly 50 percent of the vote in the May primary in what was then a three-way race. Duncan, who served in the state House for five years, ran a campaign as an underdog outsider, often referring...

I’m very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don’t want Trump!  https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1021784726217142273

RUSH: James Comey: very, very worried. I guess in Washington he would be the number two guy behind Mueller, the most integrity and the most honorable man in Washington. That’s Mueller’s reputation. Mueller is unassailable. You dare not criticize Bob Mueller. Oh, no. Bob Mueller has been there and done it all. He’s run the FBI, the CIA, he’s been everywhere. And he’s a great Republican. You don’t challenge Bob Mueller. Well, James Comey crafted and created the same kind of reputation for himself. He was the number two most respected man in Washington. So last week or ten days...