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Santorum Catches Romney in GOP Race Rick Santorum’s support among Tea Party Republicans and white evangelicals is surging, and he now has pulled into a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. In polling conducted Feb. 8-12, 30% of Republican and Republican leaning registered voters favor Santorum while 28% favor Romney. As recently as a month ago, Romney held a 31% to 14% advantage over Santorum among all GOP voters. Santorum is now the clear favorite of Republican and GOP-leaning voters who agree with the Tea Party, as well as white evangelical Republicans. Currently,...

With Mitt Romney re-establishing himself, after the unpleasantness in South Carolina, as the Republicans' de facto nominee, I thought it would be fun to offer some sort of prize--say, a bronze replica of the 1939 Molotov-Von Ribbentrop pact--to the first Fox News personality to endorse Romney's absurd claim that Romneycare (good) was entirely different from Obamacare (bad). I never dreamed that Ann Coulter would beat me to the punch. She's never been much good at playing with the other children. (Remember when she called Jonah Goldberg and Rich Lowry "girly-boys"?) All I can say is that she must really, really...

Ronald Reagan’s eldest son Mike Reagan has issued a statement lambasting Mitt Romney and his supporters for claims that Romney’s Republican presidential rival Newt Gingrich was a strong critic of President Reagan. Reagan says such claims are false. Even Rush Limbaugh, shocked by the Romney claims, chimed on his Thursday radio broadcast to say "This is obviously a coordinated attack to take Newt out here in Florida." Rush slammed the Romney-backed smear campaign against Newt. “That kind of stuff is why people hate Romney so much," Limbaugh said. Limbaugh added that Newt has always been a conservative from his early...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has now surged ahead of Mitt Romney in the final Rasmussen Reports survey of the South Carolina Republican Primary race with the vote just two days away. The latest telephone survey of Likely GOP Primary Voters in the state finds Gingrich with 33% support to Romney’s 31%. Two days ago, before the last debate, it was Romney by 14 percentage points. Texas Congressman Ron Paul now runs third with 15% of the vote, followed by former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum at 11%. Paul's support is steady while Santorum's support has dropped five points since Monday....

President Barack Obama faces a litany of bad news. The president’s job approval rating, his favorability, and his rating on the economy have hit all-time lows. To compound matters, three in four Americans still believe the nation is in a recession and the proportion who thinks the country is moving in the wrong direction is at its highest point in more than a decade. President Barack Obama According to this McClatchy-Marist Poll, the president’s approval rating is at 39% among registered voters nationally, an all-time low for Mr. Obama. For the first time a majority — 52% — disapproves of...

Obama Job Approval: Approve - 42% Disapprove - 50%

PORTLAND, Ore.—Republicans on the campaign trail are bashing the president and his agenda and some are vowing to shut down Washington if they don't get their way. Behind the scenes, key party members are talking a different game. A number of House Republicans, including some who are likely to be in the leadership, are pushing a post-election strategy aimed at securing concrete legislation, with the goal of showing they can translate general principles into specific action. Among the ideas is to bring a series of bills to the floor, as often as once a week, designed to cut spending in...

Incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet and his Republican challenger Ken Buck are in a virtual tie in Colorado’s U.S. Senate race as the candidates prepare for a nationally televised debate on Sunday. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Colorado shows Buck with 47% support to Bennet’s 45%. Four percent (4%) prefer another candidate in the race, and another four percent (4%) are still undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) These findings move the race from Leans Republican to a Toss-Up in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Senate Balance of Power rankings. This is the closest...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 26% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -17 (see trends). Just 27% are even somewhat confident that Congress knows what it’s doing when addressing that nation’s economic challenges. That figure includes only 6% who are Very Confident that Congress knows what it’s doing. A month ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi received a bounce in her favorability ratings following the passage of health care. Now,...

Latest 3-day rolling Gallup survey of Obama job approval among American adults: 45% approve (new all-time low) 48% disapprove (ties all-time low for second consecutive day) -3 popularity spread (all-time low)

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 28% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -11 (see trends). We apologize for the disruption in our online service yesterday and continue to investigate the cause. We are doing all we can to prevent a recurrence. Just 38% of voters nationwide now support the health care plan working its way through Congress. That matches the lowest level of support yet measured. Scott Rasmussen takes...

Registered voters nationally are divided about President Barack Obama’s job approval rating. 46% approve of his job performance while 44% disapprove. One in ten voters is unsure. This is the first time the president has lost majority support on this question since taking office. When Marist last asked this question in October, 53% of voters gave the president high marks. Partisanship is alive and well here, but Mr. Obama has slipped slightly among voters in both parties. 77% of Democrats approve of the president’s job performance compared with 12% of Republicans. Two months ago, 84% of Democrats and 21% of...

President Obama's sweeping vision for a health care system overhaul, which barely gained approval in the House last month, has come to a screeching halt in the Senate, where Democrats remain sharply divided and Republican opposition has hardened. "The amendment process continues to crawl forward, and this historic health bill continues to evolve and improve," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday on the Senate floor. After five days of debate, only two issues have been tackled through amendments: expanding women's health screenings and Medicare. The really big issues remain stalled behind closed doors. Democrats need 60 votes to end...

RealClearPolitics.com, which averages all recent national public opinion polls, now shows President Obama's job approval average has dropped to 49.9%, marking the first time this number has dipped below the critical 50% line. Obama's job disapproval average has also climbed to an all-time high of 44.6%, thus narrowing the approval/disapproval gap to a new low of +5.3%.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 32% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -8 (see trends). Even as the House of Representatives passed its version of health care reform, most Americans continue to oppose the plan working its way through Congress. The Berlin Wall came down twenty years ago today and 93% consider that moment an important event in world history. The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 31% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -7. That's the President's best daily rating in just over three weeks. ***** Overall, 49% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty percent (50%) disapprove. Rasmussen Reports also compiles the Presidential Approval data on a month-by-month basis which shows that the President's ratings slipped a bit in October after stabilizing in...

In what may be the ultimate job rating, 43 percent of voters say that they would vote to re-elect President Obama if the 2012 election were held today, down from 52 percent six months ago, from April 22-23, 2009. Obama's job approval rating comes in at 49 percent this week. That's down just one percentage point from late September, but it marks a new low approval for the president -- and the first time the Fox News poll has measured his approval below 50 percent. Moreover, the number of Americans saying they would vote to re-elect President Obama has dropped....