Free Republic

PRINCETON, NJ -- President Barack Obama averaged 46% job approval the week of Feb. 28-March 6, his lowest weekly average since mid-December. Obama's weekly approval rating had steadily improved from mid-December to late January, peaking at 50% during the final two weeks in January, before dropping below that mark in February. Trend, November 2010-March 2011: Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president? Obama is now essentially back to where he was in the immediate post-election phase of 2010. The decline could be due to a number of issues the administration is...

When the first OPEC oil shock hit the U.S. in 1973, President Nixon encouraged Americans as a voluntary gas-saving measure to drive 55 mph on the interstate. Not long after, the infamous "double nickel" became mandatory as Congress made states choose between adopting the lower speed limit and losing millions in federal aid. For two decades, most Americans voted with their gas pedals and flagrantly ignored the federal speed limit. It had become the least respected law since Prohibition by the time President Clinton repealed it in December 1995. Now, as we learn more about Obamacare, the odds are good...

The November Kaiser Health Tracking Poll shows that President Obama's health care overhaul has now hit a lower level of popularity than at any previous time in his presidency. Kaiser writes, "Just a quarter of the public (25 percent) now says they expect their own families to be better off under the health reform law, which is the lowest share since KFF [Kaiser Family Foundation] began tracking this question." Kaiser notes that it began tracking the question in February of 2009, just weeks after President Obama's inauguration. The survey also confirms that "health care voters" were central to the Republicans'...

Sunday, September 05, 2010 Email to a Friend ShareThis Advertisement The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-seven percent (47%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -23 (see trends).

Highest level of Strong Disapproval and the lowest Approval Index daily rating yet recorded for this president.

Five astounding things The One has taught us so far. How long has it been since you’ve heard some starry-eyed Obama worshiper gush on and on about the Lightworker? Or heard suspicious accounts of “leg-tingling” from media folks? Or heard a supposedly intelligent American drone on about Obama as hovering above the rest of us as “sort of God”?Yes, it’s been quite a while since the throngs fainted, fawned, and followed The One.But let’s cut Obama, our benevolent leader, a little slack. While he’s off spreading our wealth around in that pestilence-ridden pocket of American poverty, Martha’s Vineyard, let’s recount...

The left has collapsed. Its political support has collapsed. Public opinion polls point to a historic repudiation of the president and the Democratic party this fall, something on the order of a 60-seat Republican gain in the House. The GOP has an outside shot at taking the Senate as well. Its claim to intellectual integrity has collapsed. Paul Krugman, Ivy League professor, New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate (the holy trinity of the liberal establishment), has humiliated himself with a startlingly dishonest attack on Paul Ryan's budget proposal. Krugman, called out by Ryan, rebuked by honest analysts and unwilling...

My friend Bill Otis responds to John's post, which expressed surprise that President Obama is talking about immigration, given the unpopularity of the administration's position on that subject. Bill writes: My view is that Obama is starting to talk about immigration because, although he surely knows it's a big loser, it's less of a loser than the items from which he hopes the immigration yacking wil distract attention, to wit, that the oil catastrophe continues apace while he is helpless and inert, and that there is a tepid recovery, if any, with a pitance of private sector jobs. Indeed, we...

For years, I’ve heard supposed libertarians pontificating about low-taxes, on the one hand, while supporting welfare-dependent drug addicts, on the other. Which begs the question: Are the media’s favourite libertarian thinkers, Alzheimer’s victims or fifth columnists? Take Reason magazine – and let’s revisit 2008. Before the last election, Peter Bagge a Reason contributing editor was asked which way he was swinging. The libertarian-minded elitist pontificated: If the polls in my home state are close: Obama (McCain is simply too incompetent these days to be president). If not, I’ll make a protest vote for Barr. And how did that work out?...

So the Rasmussen poll now has the President's Approval Index rating at -19% with 22% of the nation's voters strongly approving of his performance and 41% strongly disapproving. The overall numbers are 45% approval, 54% disapproval. Rasmussen reports the Approval Index rating is at the lowest level seen only one other time in this presidency: December 22, the eve of the last health care push in the Senate; pre-Scott Brown. According to Rasmussen, only 39% support the President's health care plan, 58% are opposed. Still he plans to unveil it tomorrow. In front of the cameras (finally). It will be...

The American public wants Congress to start the health care debate over from scratch - just as Republicans have been pushing - amid growing talk among Democrats about the need to use a procedural end run to ram through a revised overhaul bill. A Zogby International poll released Tuesday shows that 57 percent of Americans do not like either of the competing health care bills produced by the Senate and House and say Congress should start over, as a group of bipartisan lawmakers head to a health care summit with President Obama next week. White House officials say they plan...

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she sees little support for sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, forecasting a potential showdown with the Obama administration over how to win the war. Pelosi's comments put President Barack Obama in an uneasy position as he considers whether to side with his top commander in Afghanistan, who is expected in coming weeks to ask for more troops and other resources. She is the highest-ranking Democrat to signal that any White House or Pentagon push for more troops will be resisted in Congress. "I don't think there's a great deal of support...

Has there ever been a lamer duck than George W. Bush? How he went from winning a clear majority of the 2004 popular vote to his current dismal showing is a topic that will fascinate historians in the future. The answers will assuredly revolve around Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq, and the financial meltdown that has panicked Wall Street and made a Democratic victory this November all but certain. Yet, even as Bush gets swept into the proverbial dustbin of history, it would be a mistake to succumb to the temptation of viewing everything he did as wrong. But...

Unpopular Sarkozy turns 'gold into lead' By Henry Samuel in Paris Last Updated: 8:13pm BST 24/04/2008 President Nicolas Sarkozy is battling to convince an angry and disillusioned France that he deserves another chance a year after claiming power, amid accusations that he has turned his political capital from "gold into lead". President Sarkozy's government has been damaged by bickering between ministers Mr Sarkozy had an hour and a half last night on prime time television to counter claims that his reforms are half-baked, his glitzy style and turbulent private life inappropriate for a president, and that he has failed to...

WASHINGTON — A new poll shows Americans' approval of Congress sinking to all-time lows. The latest Gallup Poll found that approval of the legislative branch of the federal government hit 18 percent in an Aug. 13-16 survey. Those disapproving of Congress stands at 76 percent. Gallup says the approval number matches the low-water mark hit in 1992, in the midst of a check-bouncing scandal in what was a Democrat-led Congress. That scandal was among the reasons credited for the sweeping Republican takeover in 1994. The poll surveyed 1,019 adults aged 18 and older, and has a 3 percent margin of...

The poll, which surveyed 2,223 potential voters, was released Tuesday March 27, 2008. It revealed strong, negative opinions of the New York senator, who is viewed as a polarizing figure in American politics....

CRAWFORD -- As night fell, about 50 peace activists sat in a circle under a blanket of stars and chanted a Hindu mantra. "Ommmmmm," they began, as one, in a droning monotone. Again. Then again, drawing out the syllable until they were out of breath. In the darkness, from a nearby pasture, a sound broke the meditative bliss. MoooooOOHhh. The bovine reply reminded the gathering of where they are, and gave them a reason to laugh, just the kind of bonding moment those who are doggedly committed to bringing American troops home from Iraq needed at the end of another...

Could actor Tom Cruise be even less popular than a mass murderer? Respondents in a poll said they’d rather spend the night with deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein than the "Mission Impossible” star. Stuff Magazine asked readers who among four personalities they would least like to share a camping tent with overnight. Cruise took the prize with 41 percent, with Saddam trailing at 39 percent. Sportscaster/celebrity reporter Pat O’Brien got 15 percent and actress/comedienne Kathy Griffin, 5 percent. It’s been a bad few weeks for Cruise. He recently "won” an unwanted Razzie award at a ceremony acknowledging the year's worst...

(CBS) The latest CBS News poll finds President Bush's approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, while pessimism about the Iraq war has risen to a new high. Americans are also overwhelmingly opposed to the Bush-backed deal giving a Dubai-owned company operational control over six major U.S. ports. Seven in 10 Americans, including 58 percent of Republicans, say they're opposed to the agreement. CBS News senior White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports that now it turns out the Coast Guard had concerns about the ports deal, a disclosure that is no doubt troubling to a president...

Latin America: Odd, that as "popular" as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is said to be, he's so detested by Venezuelans that he can no longer go to baseball games without being booed by the whole stadium.