Free Republic

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...