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Slim majorities of Americans are very or somewhat closely following the situations involving the Internal Revenue Service (54%) and the congressional hearings on the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and its aftermath (53%) -- comparatively low based on historical measures of other news stories over the last two decades. These results are based on a May 14-15 Gallup poll. Despite extensive news coverage of these stories in recent days, the level of attention being paid to each is below the average 60% of Americans who have closely followed more than 200 news stories Gallup has measured over...

Fifty-three percent of Americans say the law should recognize same-sex marriages, the third consecutive reading of 50% or above in Gallup polling over the past year. The 53% in favor ties the high to this point, also measured last November and in May 2011. Gallup's May 2-7 poll suggests Americans' support for gay marriage is solidifying above the majority level. Recently, Rhode Island and Delaware legalized same-sex marriage, and Minnesota is likely to follow suit. That would bring the total number of states legally recognizing same-sex marriage to 12. Just three years ago, support for gay marriage was 44%. The...

Hawaii residents remained the least likely in the U.S. to say they felt stressed on any given day in 2012, at 32.1%. West Virginia residents, on average, were the most likely to report feeling stress, at 47.1%. These state-level data are based on daily surveys conducted from January through December 2012 and encompass more than 350,000 interviews as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Nationwide, 40.6% of Americans reported feeling stressed "yesterday" in 2012, similar to past years. Gallup has measured daily stress in its tracking survey since 2008. Hawaii has ranked as the state with the lowest percentage of...

About six in 10 Americans believe that money and wealth should be more evenly distributed among a larger percentage of the people in the U.S., while one-third think the current distribution is fair. Although Americans' attitudes on this topic have fluctuated somewhat over time, the current sentiment is virtually the same as when Gallup first asked this question in 1984. Slightly fewer have favored a more even distribution since October 2008. The range in the percentage saying wealth should be "more evenly distributed" has been relatively narrow over time, from a low of 56% in 2000 to a high of...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Few Americans mention guns or immigration as the most important problems facing the nation today, despite the current attention lawmakers in Washington are giving to these issues. The economy still dominates as the top concern, followed by jobs and dissatisfaction with the general way in which Congress and the government work.

President Obama’s approval rating dipped slightly after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a deal to avoid the sequester, according to a Gallup survey released Tuesday. Obama’s approval rating had been holding steadily above the 50-percent mark since last October. But over the weekend, following Friday’s sequester deadline, the president’s approval rating fell as low as 46 percent. Obama averaged 49-percent approval for the week ending March 3, down from the previous week’s average of 51 percent, and down from 53 percent, where he started February. Obama’s highest weekly average in 2013 came shortly before his second inauguration in early...

After Obama won re-election, there was extensive discussion among his supporters about whether the Republican “fever” would, in fact, break. Would the fiscal cliff negotiations, which resulted in the GOP accepting a tax increase on the nation’s highest earners, do the trick? If not, would coming fights over the debt ceiling and sequestration finally cure the Republican illness?....... Some in the GOP saw public opinion at work. “The three-day Gallup tracking numbers certainly aren’t good for him,” said one House aide, pointing to surveys placing Obama’s job approval rating at 47 percent approve versus 45 percent disapprove — down from...

After four years of Barack Obama's diplomatic 'leadership' and billions of dollars in attempted friendship aid, a new public opinion poll reveals that 92% of Pakistanis now disapprove of the United States. The results could have been worse. Not much. But a little. Fully four Pakistanis out of 100 do approve of the United States, President Obama and his policies. They, however, seem to keep kind of quiet about their views in that rowdy land. That's the lowest favorable rating Pakistan's citizens have ever given their ostensible North American ally. The new Gallup Poll, out this morning, reports that the...

PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 30 (UPI) -- The number of blue states outnumbered the number of red states in the United States last year, 20 to 12, results of a Gallup poll released Wednesday indicated. After the District of Columbia, the most Democratic-leaning states in 2012 were Hawaii, Maryland, Rhode Island, New York, and Massachusetts, where Democrats held at least 20-percentage-point advantages in party identification, results indicated. Republicans held a similarly lopsided advantage in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – Fewer than four-in-10 Americans (39 percent) rate the US in a positive manner – the most negative feedback the country has produced since 1979. A new Gallup poll finds that Americans are as negative about the country’s prospects as they have been in more than three decades. Americans are more upbeat in their predictions of where the U.S. will be in five years (48 percent positive), but this is the lowest rating since an August 1979 Gallup poll was conducted. The negativity about the current state of the US has a politically partisan split – Republicans...

Fewer Americans now cite unemployment as most important problem PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans' concerns about the federal budget deficit and government dysfunction rose high enough in January to knock unemployment out of the top two slots on Gallup's "most important problem" list for the first time since 2009.These results are based on a Jan. 7-10 Gallup poll, conducted just after Washington lawmakers narrowly avoided the fiscal cliff by virtue of a resolution that in part postponed the deadline for legislated sequestration of spending until March 1. Additionally, a debt ceiling deadline looms within the next two months.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans' concerns about the federal budget deficit and government dysfunction rose high enough in January to knock unemployment out of the top two slots on Gallup's "most important problem" list for the first time since 2009.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans again this year name Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama as the Most Admired Woman and Most Admired Man living in any part of the world. Clinton has been the Most Admired Woman each of the last 11 years, and Obama has been the Most Admired Man five years in a row. First lady Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Condoleezza Rice are next in line behind Clinton on the Most Admired Woman list, while Nelson Mandela, Mitt Romney, Billy Graham, George W. Bush, and Pope Benedict XVI follow Obama as Most Admired Man....

So how would Piers Morgan fare with his proposed constitutional amendment to repeal gun rights? Amazingly, nearly three-quarters of Americans agree on handguns, anyway … but not with Piers Morgan. According to the latest Gallup survey taken within days of the Newtown massacre, a record number of Americans oppose a handgun ban, 74/24: Despite Americans’ willingness to strengthen gun laws in the wake of Sandy Hook and other deadly mass shootings, Gallup finds public opposition to a broad ban on the possession of handguns at a record-high 74%. Conversely, the 24% in favor is the lowest recorded since Gallup first...

Despite the attempts by the Left to use the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut to forward their anti-gun agenda, Americans feel that there are other avenues they would rather explore to protect to innocent children, according to a new Gallup Poll. In order of preference, the poll shows that 53% of Americans would favor an increased police presence at schools, 50% wanted to increase government spending on mental health screening and treatment, 47% thought that gun violence on TV, in movies and in video games should be decreased, and 42% thought the sale of assault and semi-automatic guns should be banned....

Fewer Americans believe now is a good time to find a quality job, compared to last month, a new Gallup poll found. The number of Americans saying the time is right to find a quality job fell sharply in December to 19 percent—down from 24 percent in November. Three in four Americans, or 76 percent, say this is a bad time to find a quality job. … The availability of quality jobs is considered a key to economic growth. …

A majority of Americans say the Boy Scouts should not allow open homosexuals to be Scout leaders, according to a new Gallup Poll. The survey, conducted Nov. 28-29 for USA Today, found that only 42 percent of Americans support openly gay Scout leaders, while a majority 52 percent are opposed. … The Boy Scouts are currently under pressure from supporters of a lesbian former den mother from Ohio, Jennifer Tyrrell, who was removed from her leadership post earlier this year, when her sexual orientation was made public. Tyrrell has petitioned for reinstatement. …

With the generally upbeat spending reports on black Friday and cyber-Monday, Gallup paints a different point of view in its most recent poll that shows U.S. Consumer Spending Holds Steady, Consistent With 2011Americans' self-reported daily spending averaged $73 in November, essentially on par with September and October. It is also similar to the $71 Americans spent last November and slightly higher compared with November 2010 and 2009 -- but still much lower than in November 2008. November 2012 vs. November Prior Years U.S. Upper-Income Spending Sees Worst November on Record Upper-income Americans' (defined as those making at least $90,000 per...

After a few post-Hurricane Sandy weeks of new jobless claims hitting over 400,000, it looks as though we´ve settled back into the new and accepted normal of new claims landing somewhere in the 360,000 to 390,000 range. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this week saw 370,000 new claims filed. Keep in mind, though, that it´s only in Barack Obama´s America that we´ve learned to celebrate any number under 400,000. We´re nowhere near the point where our economy creates enough jobs to keep up with those lost every week. But because the media will never

Look, I don’t even know anymore. I’m just gonna put these out there for you as yet another indication of how tough getting anywhere close to solving our deficit and debt problems is. It’s a nice complement to the latest in the fiscal cliff saga, in which allegedly intractable, unreasonable Republicans offer a Simpson-Bowles-like compromise that might actually come within a couple ballparks of acknowledging our debt problems while Democrats seem rather enthusiastic about cliff-diving and yet the press and public are determined to blame Republicans for going over. Let’s see if that can change in the near future. Presumably...

PRINCETON, NJ -- For the first time in Gallup trends since 2000, a majority of Americans say it is not the federal government's responsibility to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage. Prior to 2009, a majority always felt the government should ensure healthcare coverage for all, though Americans' views have become more divided in recent years. The current results are based on Gallup's annual Health and Healthcare poll, conducted Nov. 15-18 this year. The shift away from the view that the government should ensure healthcare coverage for all began shortly after President Barack Obama's election and has continued the...

Last week's presidential election has widely been seen as a victory for pollsters who, on balance, saw President Obama as the favorite before Election Day. But that wasn't the case for the esteemed Gallup Organization. Its polling showed Republican Mitt Romney with a significant lead among likely voters 10 days before Nov. 6 and marginally ahead of Obama on the eve of an election that Obama won by about 3 percentage points. At an event on Thursday at Gallup's downtown Washington offices, Gallup Editor in Chief Frank Newport told a gathering of fellow pollsters that the organization was reviewing its...

Nate Silver has gotten a lot of press for his near perfect election night predictions. In 2008 Silver gained popularity and influence after he called 49 out of 50 states. Many pundits were predicting that Silver would crash and burn in 2012. Instead, he outperformed his 2008 predictions and now that Florida has been called for president Obama, Silver can tout a perfect record 50 out of 50 states called correctly.How did Silver do it?Only Likely Voters Matter: This is one obvious reason SilverÂ’s method outshines everyone else. Anything other than likely voter models is useless information. This is key....

GALLUP: R 49% O 48%

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE          www.nationalreview.com           Parsing the Polls By Michael G. Franc November 3, 2012 12:00 A.M. Last week, the Gallup Organization provided more fodder for the debate over whether this year’s polls are skewed due to a systematic over-representation of Democrats in the samples. If Gallup has it right, Governor Romney’s lead may be several percentage points greater than the most recent round of polls suggests. Gallup reviewed all of its interviews with “likely voters� conducted since October 1. Its conclusion: “The composition of the electorate for the 2012 presidential election is looking quite similar to what it was in...

And if so, shouldn't they be releasing new numbers sometime this afternoon?

Dear Friend, In this video commentary, I discuss some important poll findings from Gallup that is a game changer for the election. Tune in!

Key Gallup indicators of voter turnout, collected prior to superstorm Sandy, suggest voter turnout will fall short of what it was in 2004 and 2008. U.S. registered voters report giving less thought to the election, and are less likely to rate their chance of voting as a "10" on a 10-point scale, than in 2004 and 2008, two higher-turnout elections. However, the 2012 figures are higher than in 1996 and 2000, two lower-turnout elections.

The tidal wave of anti-debt, anti-big-government voters that swamped Democrats in the 2010 congressional elections is readying itself again, poised to sweep Mitt Romney into the Oval Office, some political observers say. “It’s very, very likely,” veteran Republican campaign pollster John McLaughlin said, predicting a Romney tsunami Tuesday. “Romney has surged in all the target states,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “The undecided vote is not really undecided. They overwhelmingly disapprove of the job the president has done and will largely vote against the incumbent. It’s a hidden vote that will vote against the president.”

The Gallup Organization has some very bad news for the Obama camp, but is being discreet about it, entombing it at the bottom of an article innocuously titled "In U.S., 15% of Registered Voters Have Already Cast Ballots." Given the apparent intimidation of Gallup by the Department of Justice, it is only prudent to once again bury the lede. But that does not make the news any less painful for Obamaites, who have been counting on a supposed ground game and early voting advantage. John Nolte of Breitbart has no such compunctions about delivering the bad news from Gallup: Romney...

“Gallup will not conduct daily tracking surveys for a second night, Tuesday, Oct. 30, due to the ongoing effects of superstorm Sandy and will continue to reassess the situation on a day-to-day basis,” read a statement from the organization. “Gallup will provide an update on Wednesday about plans from that point forward.” Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/83057.html

My pal Guy Benson found a juicy nugget that helps to bring more clarity to the news from Gallup yesterday that shows Romney leading Obama in the early vote by a full seven points, 52-45%. Almost exactly four years ago (October 28, 2008), according to Gallup, Obama was massacring John McCain among early voters with a fifteen-point lead, 55-40%. That means, at least according to Gallup, that Obama's early vote advantage has dropped 22 points when compared to '08. Benson also notes that the percentage of voters who have or intend to vote early was 33% in 2008 and remains...

Romney currently leads Obama 52% to 45% among voters who say they have already cast their ballots. However, that is comparable to Romney's 51% to 46% lead among all likely voters in Gallup's Oct. 22-28 tracking polling. At the same time, the race is tied at 49% among those who have not yet voted but still intend to vote early, suggesting these voters could cause the race to tighten. However, Romney leads 51% to 45% among the much larger group of voters who plan to vote on Election Day, Nov. 6.

This is a statement from Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport regarding Gallup polling and Gallup Daily tracking during Hurricane Sandy: Gallup has suspended polling for its daily tracking as of Monday night and will reassess on a day-to-day basis. The ultimate effect on the overall picture of polling between now and this weekend, including election polling, will depend on what happens as a result of the storm, about which we will have a better understanding of on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Look for future updates here.

All registered voters are asked: "Suppose the presidential election were held today, and it included Barack Obama and Joe Biden as the Democratic Party's candidates and Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as the Republican Party's candidates. Who would you vote for [ROTATED: Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the Democrats (or) Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, the Republicans]?" Those who are undecided are further asked if they lean more toward Obama and Biden or Romney and Ryan and their leanings are incorporated into the results.

Romney drops a point; Obama still at 46

In the most precipitous decline it has seen in more than a year, President Barack Obama's job approval rating has dropped 7 points in three days, according to Gallup. In the three-day period ending on Oct. 23, says Gallup, 53 percent said they approved of the job Obama was doing and 42 percent said they did not. On Oct. 24, that dropped to 51 percent who said they approved and 44 percent who said they do not. On Oct. 25, it dropped again to 48 percent who said they approved and 47 percent who said they do not. On Oct....

Obama approval rating has taken a 14-point turnaround for the negative in the last 4 days. Getting just killed on personal approval. Hasn't been above 47 in 2 weeks. Benghazi and his body language are hanging all over him.

In 2008, 54% of likely voters identified as Democrat or lean Democrat. 42% of likely voters identified as GOP or lean GOP. In other words, the electorate, including independents who lean towards a particular party, was D+12. This year, however, the Democrat advantage has disappeared. 49% of likely voters today identify as GOP or lean GOP. Just 46% of likely voters are or lean towards the Democrats. This is a 15-point swing towards the GOP from 2008 to an outright +3 advantage for the GOP. By comparison, in 2004, when Bush won reelection, the electorate was evenly split, with each...

Mitt Romney’s Gallup daily tracking poll numbers are now better than any presidential challenger dating back to 1936. The Gallup daily tracking poll of likely voters released on October 26 shows Mr. Romney leading Barack Obama 51% to 46%. Mr. Romney holds the lead in the nine elections since 1936 in which either an incumbent president was defeated or there was no incumbent. Tied for second are Mr. Obama (2008) and George H.W. Bush (1992) with 50% at this point in the race, followed by John F. Kennedy (1960), Jimmy Carter (1980) and George W. Bush (2000) with 49%, Dwight...

We always talk about the independent, swing vote in elections because those tend to be the persuadables. But party ID numbers matter as well, because those partisan voters tend to split better than 90/10 for their party. It is for that reason that Gallup’s new partisan ID split, one that mimics what Rasmussen has been saying all along, predicts nothing less than doom for the Democrats, and a solid, national win for Mitt Romney this year. Ignore Gallup’s headline. They’ve buried the lede so far deep, they’ll be fracking in Australia to bring it to the surface. Demographically the country...

Likely Voters Romney 51% +1 Obama 46% -1 7-day rolling average

R50/O47

R50/O47

Romney-51/Obama-46

I think we can now pinpoint when the full scale no holds barred DUmmie panic attack begins. It will be this weekend. How do I know? Because right now the DUmmies were shaken up by the latest Rasmussen poll showing Romney up by 50 to 46 which also closely matches the Gallup poll results. So why this weekend? Because the nervous DUmmies are holding out the hope that somehow Obama with his Sling Blade Stare during last night's debate can turn it all around as you can see in this THREAD, "Rasmussen." When the poll results are released this...

Nate Silver, the New York Times political blogger, laid out a detailed argument against the poll in a post called “Gallup vs. the World.” “We tend to put too much emphasis on the newest, most widely reported and most dramatic pieces of data—more than is usually warranted,” Silver says. “Apart from Gallup’s final poll not having been especially accurate in recent years, it has often been a wild ride to get there. Their polls, for whatever reason, have often found implausibly large swings in the race,” he adds. The website The Hill was less generous to Gallup than The New...

October 22, 2012 Romney Crushing Obama with Independents in New Monmouth Poll (Update: Romney Lead Holds in Gallup) Bryan Preston A new Monmouth University poll carries more bad news for the Obama campaignadministration (that’s not a typo). Nationally, Mitt Romney now leads 48-45. That’s a flip from mid-September, when Obama led by the same margin. Five percent remain undecided.The poll finds that about 12% of likely voters in the sample have already voted nationally, and Romney leads among them 44-41. The gender gap has also closed dramatically after the first debate, with Obama leading by just four points among women...

Romney-51/Obama-45

Mitt Romney continues to out-poll every winning presidential challenger since 1968. The latest Gallup daily tracking poll of likely voters has Mr. Romney leading Barack Obama by seven points, 52% to 45%. Mr. Romney’s total is greater than Richard Nixon’s 44% at this point in the race in 1968, Jimmy Carter’s 49% in 1976, Ronald Reagan’s hard to believe 39% in 1980 (Carter was ahead with 45%), George H. W. Bush’s 50% in 1988, and Bill Clinton’s 40% in 1992. In 2000 and 2008 George W. Bush and Barack Obama both tracked at a within-error 51%.