Free Republic

As a major tea party group plans protests Tuesday at Internal Revenue Service offices across the country, a new national poll indicates that the IRS controversy has given the four-year-old movement a shot in the arm. The week-and-a-half-old controversy, which involves the IRS targeting of tea party and other conservative groups which were seeking tax exempt status, has dominated headlines and put the White House on the defensive. And according to a CNN/ORC International survey released Monday, it's also boosted the favorable rating for the tea party movement. Thirty-seven percent of people questioned said they see the tea party in...

Given the battering President Obama took this past week on a trio of political scandals, any public opinion survey results that aren’t dreadful probably are viewed with some relief at the White House. That may be the clearest message from a CNN/ORC poll released Sunday morning. According to the survey, which was conducted Friday and Saturday, 53 percent of Americans say they approve of the job the president is doing, with 45 percent saying they disapprove, CNN reports. That’s actually a tick better than the 51 percent approval rating Obama had in early April – but not enough to break...

The renewed interest in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack at the U.S. post in Benghazi, Libya, has not shaken Hillary Clinton’s position among potential 2016 contenders, according to a new poll. The former secretary of state — under fire by conservatives who say she played politics with the attack in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others were killed — still leads the potential 2016 Democratic field with 63 percent of the vote in her party, according to a Public Policy Polling poll released Wednesday. Vice President Joe Biden comes in at second with 13 percent. No other candidate polled...

Forget background checks and gun control, divisions within the GOP on immigration, and Republican intransigence on negotiating a budget deal with the president. The current triple play of Benghazi, the IRS and now the Justice Department’s seizure of journalists’ phone records has the potential to be a political game changer for 2014. It’s hard to overstate the potential significance of the past week. What we are witnessing is nothing less than a dramatic reversal of the nation’s political narrative — from how bad the Republican brand is and how President Barack Obama is going to mobilize public opinion against the...

My rule of thumb is that a vast majority of alleged political scandals will have less electoral impact than the conventional wisdom initially holds. There are two main reasons for this. First, voters weigh major issues like economic performance and the conduct of foreign wars heavily in making their decisions, leaving relatively little room for everything else. Second, the news media may overplay the lead story, scandalous or otherwise, on any given day, even though it may turn out to be relatively unimportant in the context of a multiyear political cycle. But the recent admission by the Internal Revenue Service...

We've gathered some poll numbers that anti-Second Amendment politicians should take into account before national elections in 2014, so tell your reps. Of Americans surveyed: 1) "58 percent of people worry that stricter gun legislation would make it more difficult for people to protect their families;" 2) only 4% consider gun control the "most important problem facing this country today;" and, 3) only 47% "say they are 'angry' or 'disappointed' that gun legislation failed to pass." First, from Pew via ABC: ... 48 percent of gun owners purchased firearms for protection -- an increase of 22 percent from the survey...

Democrats and Republicans continue to be divided over the need for new gun control laws, and the most recent national survey of registered voters from Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind finds that attitudes regarding the perceived likelihood of an armed revolution to protect liberties and the truth about the Sandy Hook shooting are helpful in explaining this partisan divide. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Democrats say that Congress needs to pass new laws to protect the public from gun violence, but the views of Republicans are almost completely opposite: 65 percent don’t think new laws are necessary. Overall, registered voters are divided...

How stupid does the Senate background-check vote look now, I ask the pundits and others who thought it was dumb politics for Obama and the Democrats to push for a vote that they obviously knew they were going to lose. I’d say not very stupid at all. The nosedive taken in the polls by a number of senators who voted against the bill, most of them in red states, makes public sentiment here crystal clear. And now, for the first time since arguably right after the Reagan assassination attempt—a damn long time, in other words—legislators in Washington are feeling political...

A new poll finds that many Americans are confused about the health care overhaul legislation commonly called “Obamacare.” The Kaiser Family Foundation released results of a non-partisan study today finding more than 40 percent did not even know the law was in place. “Four in ten Americans (42%) are unaware that the ACA [Affordable Care Act] is still the law of the land,” the report says, “including 12 percent who believe the law has been repealed by Congress, 7 percent who believe it has been overturned by the Supreme Court and 23 percent who say they don’t know enough to...

Despite assurances by the likes of Nate Silver that these are solid polls showing "Overwhelming majorities of 80 to 90 percent of the public say they favor background checks," I have previously noted my skepticism of these claims. To me, it wasn't too surprising that the Senate voted down the gun control bill about 10 days ago. My concern is that people were really just being asked about whether they wanted to keep criminals from getting guns, not about the particular legislation being voted on by the Senate. Well, now there is another poll by the PEW Research Center that...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would have won the presidency if the white and black turnout rates had stayed at their 2004 levels, according to a new analysis of 2012 election. “The battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida and Colorado would have tipped in favor of Romney, handing him the presidency if the outcome of other states remained the same,” according to The Associated Press’s summary of research by William Frey, an expert at the Brookings Institution. Overall turnout declined from 62 percent in 2008 to 58 percent in 2012, Frey reported. The drop-off reduced the overall turnout by...

Frank Luntz may smugly believe that Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and other right wing talk radio hosts are "responsible for the stark polarization within the nation's political discourse" and therefore "problematic" for the Republican Party. I submit the problem is that Luntz, and a misguided over-reliance on focus groups, has neutered and thus destroyed any semblance of courage in the GOP's message. Luntz is conflating, as many wonks and number crunchers do, cause and effect with regard to the bigger realities and polarization. The country is polarized because, well, we are polarized. Rush and "the great one" didn't make it...

Well, get a load of this. On Sunday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein appeared on Fox News to discuss last week’s attack in Boston and terrorism in general, and Chris Wallace wondered whether the people in locked-down Boston last week, with concerns that “this fellow might be on the loose, might break into their house, might take hostages — would people like to have had guns?” “Oh, some may have, yes,” replied Feinstein. (VIDEO-AT-LINK) But it isn’t just “some” Americans who would be partial to having the means to defend themselves from violent criminals on the loose in their neighborhood; as it...

Did the senators who voted against a proposal last week to expand background checks on gun buyers take an electoral risk? At first glance, it would seem that they did. Background checks are broadly popular with the public. Overwhelming majorities of 80 to 90 percent of the public say they favor background checks when guns are purchased at gun shows, at gun shops or online. Support for background checks drops when guns are bought through informal channels, or gifts from family members — but the amendment that the Senate voted upon last week, sponsored by the Joe Manchin III, Democrat...

Most Americans believe that having a gun in the home makes you safer: A Washington Post-ABC News poll — not a Rasmussen or some Rove outfit, but the Post and an alphabet network — finds that by a wide margin, more Americans believe that having a gun in the home makes it safer than not. It’s not even close. A majority — 51% — believe that having a gun in the home makes that home safer. Only 29% believe the opposite. During the lock-down of Boston yesterday there was a fair amount of Twitter chatter about whether people in Boston...

While gun control legislation is a politically risky vote for red state Democrats, it’s also an issue that could hurt the GOP’s efforts to attract female voters.A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that 65 percent of women favor stronger gun laws, compared to 44 percent of men. That’s consistent with previous polling; a recent Quinnipiac University poll showed 61 percent of women and 45 percent of men in favor stricter gun laws.Richard Feldman, Independent Firearms Association president and former NRA lobbyist, said that the gender gap on gun laws is a long-standing one, and that much of it has...

President Obama’s handling of gay issues is the only policy area in which a majority of voters support his efforts, according to a new poll. The CNN/ORC poll released Monday showed that 52 percent of Americans approve of Mr. Obama’s policies toward gays and lesbians, while 42 percent disapprove. That’s his highest rating on any topic in the survey. On foreign affairs, 49 percent approve (with 41 percent characterizing North Korea as an immediate threat to the U.S., an all-time high for that question).

Lady Gaga has been named as the most popular women on web. COED Magazine has compiled a list based on Google search results, sporting some surprises-Justin Bieber comes in at No. 7, ABC News reported. The list also includes Washington's famous women like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at No. 18, first lady Michelle Obama at No. 21 and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at No. 32. Here are the top 50: 1. Lady Gaga 2. Kesha 3. Madonna 4. Beyoncé 5. Rihanna 6. Britney Spears 7. Justin Bieber 8. Miley Cyrus 9. Paris Hilton 10. Avril Lavigne....

As Republican leaders openly scrutinize their party after a 2012 election that was disappointing for them, rank-and-file Republicans, independents, and Democrats voice the same primary criticism of the GOP: it is "too inflexible" or "unwilling to compromise." When asked to say what they most dislike about the Republican Party...

It's amazing how many commentators seem fixated on judging religious institutions through poll questions, but Cardinal Timothy Dolan pointed out the obvious in his Easter appearance on ABC's This Week. George Stephanopoulos challenged Dolan about a recent poll of Catholics, which showed that 60% felt that the church had fallen out of touch with the views of Catholics in the US. Dolan reminded viewers that the purpose of the faith isn't to change teachings based on polls — and that means that sometimes people will find the church "out of touch":CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO During an interview for...

As the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in two high-profile cases this week - California's Proposition 8 and the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act - 60 percent of Americans think the federal government should legally recognize existing same-sex marriages and provide them the same federal benefits the government provides to heterosexual married couples. Just 35 percent do not think the government should do this. The legality of same-sex marriage varies by state. When it comes to who should decide this issue, most Americans- 62 percent - think the decision should be left up to each individual state government, while just...

According to a new Pew poll, 64 percent of Americans believe that it’s “more important to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons than to avoid a military conflict.” They point out that “majorities across nearly all demographic groups” agree — 80 percent of Republicans prioritized preventing a nuclear Iran over avoiding military conflict, but a majority of Democrats, 62 percent, did too.....

Brookings has put out the latest example of bogus immigration polling. Here’s the New York Times lede: [New York Times] Nearly two-thirds of Americans favor giving illegal immigrants in the country an opportunity for legal status with a path to citizenship, according to a poll published Thursday by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution. Support for an earned path to citizenship for those immigrants came from 71 percent of Democrats and also a majority, 53 percent, of Republicans, the poll found. Oh, my. I guess our goose is cooked, the end is near, we’ve reached the tipping...

From the March 13, 2013 White House press conference: White House press secretary Jay Carney: “Mara?” NPR reporter Mara Liasson: “You said earlier that Republicans consider this [the sequester] a home run, you called it a ‘tea party victory’…”

Two months ago, independents tilted clearly in his direction, with 54 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving. Now, half of independents express a negative opinion of the president’s performance; just 44 percent approve. The president has also seen an erosion in confidence among groups that he has counted as core supporters. Compared with a Post-ABC poll in December, the share of liberals who place their faith in Obama over Republicans when it comes to dealing with the economy is 14 points lower; there has been a 12-point slide among women. At 50 percent, Obama’s overall standing in the poll is...

If President Barack Obama had piled up political capital with his impressive re-election, it’s largely gone. His approval rating has dropped to the lowest level in more than a year...in the biggest political clash of the year – over the federal budget and how to curb deficits – voters split 44 percent to 42 percent between preferring Congress or Obama... 45 percent of voters approving of the way he’s handling his job and 48 percent disapproving...45 percent of voters approving of the way he’s handling his job and 48 percent disapproving...

There is already a bumper sticker out there that says “Barack 2012, Michelle 2016,” spotted in the nation’s capital in the last month. In that mindset, consider new numbers just released: a Harris Poll gauging first lady Michelle Obama’s popular appeal among Americans, including a rating of her “job” performance and yes, a comparison with her hubby. The numbers: 71 percent of Americans say Michelle Obama was a positive factor in President Obama’s re-election; 54 percent of Republicans and 89 percent of Democrats agree. 70 percent of Americans overall say Mrs. Obama has a positive influence on the president’s decisions;...

Until recently, we knew little about the evolution, life and death of skeet. A recent article now fills that great void. A scholarly treatise by Mr. Gary Abernathy, publisher of The Times-Gazette in Hillsboro, Ohio, deals with the evolution of skeet culminating in their short and pitiful lives and violent deaths. It seemed necessary to post a link and an excerpt here as quickly as possible because of the great but previously unsatisfied longing for reliable information on the subject. I do so despite my concern that it may detract from the attention otherwise likely to be paid to President...

President Barack Obama and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal have much in common. While Obama is a liberal Democrat and Jindal is a Republican, both of these men are relatively young and supposedly intelligent. They are minorities who graduated from Ivy League schools and spent most of their careers in government.

A national opinion poll indicates that former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is more popular than President Barack Obama and any other national political figure. The Quinnipiac University survey released Friday said Clinton has a 61 percent favorability rating among American voters, compared to President Obama's 51 percent favorability.

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" Time for Joe Scarborough to brush up on the Sermon on the Mount? On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough gloated at length over survey results indicating that the public's trust in Fox News has declined and that PBS is the only network that more people trust than distrust. But he conveniently failed to mention that Fox News remains the network that more people trust than any other . . . and that his own MSNBC trails way—way!—behind Fox...

On traditional versus “alternative” marriage, several decades of proselytizing, aided and abetted by the mass media and popular culture, have borne fruit. “There is a generational divide on this issue,” according to CBS News. “Young Americans (those ages 18-29) are some of the strongest proponents of allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.” “Seventy-two percent of them support it, as do a majority –albeit a smaller one– of Americans ages 30-44. However, support for same-sex marriage drops to 44 percent among those who are age 45-64 and even further to just a third of Americans age 65 and over. In...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Residents of Hawaii, along with those living in the District of Columbia, were most likely to approve of President Barack Obama in 2012, according to an analysis of Gallup Daily tracking for the year. Residents of Utah and Wyoming were least likely to approve, with fewer than three in 10 residents giving Obama a positive review. The full results by state appear on page 2. The states with the highest and lowest approval ratings are generally similar from year to year, with some shuffling of the rank ordering. This year, only one of the top 10 states...

As Barack Obama begins his second term in office, trust in the federal government remains mired near a historic low, while frustration with government remains high. And for the first time, a majority of the public says that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Jan. 9-13 among 1,502 adults, finds that 53% think that the federal government threatens their own personal rights and freedoms while 43% disagree. In March 2010, opinions were divided over whether the government represented a threat to...

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.

The news that Sarah Palin will no longer be a paid contributor to Fox News puts an exclamation point on the end of an era, or at least a chapter, in U.S. political history. She could land somewhere else, and she still has her Facebook friends, but it’s hard to imagine she’ll find a more visible or influential platform than Fox. The former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee has been fading from the scene for some time, as she inadvertently highlighted when she complained on Facebook during the Republican convention in August that the network had canceled her...

An interesting little factoid has emerged from a new Fox News poll of U.S. voters: Personal sentiments are strong and defiant among many U.S. gun owners. Question 46 in the wide-ranging survey of more than 1,000 registered voters asks if there is a gun in the household. Overall, 52 percent of the respondents said yes, someone in their home owned a gun. That number included 65 percent of Republicans, 59 percent of conservatives, 38 percent of Democrats and 41 percent of liberals. But on to Question 47, addressed to those with a gun in their home: "If the government passed...

A new study out by the Huntington Bank finds that nearly 60 percent of consumers in shale gas exploration regions are confident the industry will provide opportunity in their area. The Midwest Economic Index surveyed across Huntington Bank's service area – from West Virginia through Michigan. The new survey is the first of its kind conducted by Huntington. "Huntington commissioned the survey by an independent research firm because we are committed to helping our customers understand the economy in our markets," said Steve Steinour, chairman, president and CEO of Huntington Bank. "While many inside and outside of the energy industry...

(Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emerged the bruised winner of Israel's election on Tuesday, with his hawkish bloc unexpectedly losing ground to resurgent center-left challengers, exit polls showed. They suggested the Israeli leader's Likud party, yoked with the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu group, would still be the biggest bloc in the 120-member assembly with 31 seats, 11 fewer than the 42 they held in the previous parliament. If the exit polls compiled by three Israeli television channels prove correct, Netanyahu would be on course to secure a third term in office, perhaps leading a hardline coalition that would promote Jewish...

Clearly it’s been a pretty bad month for the NRA. I heard it myself from irrefutable sources at The Hill. NRA stumbles in fight with Obama over gun-control proposals Television commentator Joe Scarborough, a former GOP member of the House, hammered the group’s leaders for creating a “fringe organization.” “Their children have targets on their backs and the NRA is putting something out like [this]? What’s wrong with these people?” Scarborough said Wednesday on his “Morning Joe” program on MSNBC. “They need new leadership is what they need. Their leadership has dragged them over the cliff, they are now a...

Just a week before the New Year, Obama enjoyed his highest approval ratings of 2012. According to Gallup, 58% of Americans approved of the job Obama was doing. Survey results released today by Gallup, though, show Obama's approval rating has plummeted to just 49%. It is a dramatic drop, especially coming over a holiday period when people traditionally pay little attention to politics. Four years ago, at his first inauguration, a full 69% of Americans approved of Obama. The drop in Obama's approval from 4 years ago is understandable, given the sluggish economy and the hope American's had as his...

As negotiations on a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" enter the final three weeks, Republicans face a stark reality: The American public continues siding with President Barack Obama and Democrats on issues crucial to any potential deal. Polls taken over the past month have continually shown that a post-election bump for the President, combined with the relative unpopularity of Republicans, gives Obama a lot of leverage in the debate. Voters overwhelmingly support the key element of Obama's plan for a deal — raising taxes on incomes above $250,000. They also support blanket entitlement cuts, which is what the GOP...

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...

Operation Demoralize, the attempt to convince you that conservatism is dead, that you live in a media cocoon, that you are incapable of learning, and that your pundits lied to you, is dominating the media. But are the quick and easy answers — just say Yes to illegal immigration, higher taxes, creeping socialism — based on the reality of why the election was lost? Someone clearly outside the supposed “conservative media complex” suggests that the reasons being peddled for the loss are not accurate, or at least not the full story. Andrew Kohut, head of the Pew Research Center, writes...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 54% of Likely Voters at least somewhat approve of President Obama's job performance. Forty-five percent (45%) at least somewhat disapprove. That is the president’s highest job approval rating since July 2009

It's time to dispel the Rasmussen myths. First, he was NOT the most accurate in 2008. The articles that state this rank him first because he was the most consistent throughout Oct 2008. But there is no way to tell whether he was more correct in the middle of Oct than the others. Only that last poll can be verified by actual election results. In 2008, Rasmussen was tied for 6th most accurate and beat by others. 2008 actual results: Obama +7.3 Polling outfits closest to 7.3: CNN/Opinion Research - off by 0.3 Ipsos/McClatchy - off by 0.3 Fox News...

A couple of questions: 1) When are Republicans going to stop drinking their own bath water in regards to polling numbers? Twice in a row a significant portion of GOP voters have fell for the "skewed/biased polls" line. Sure there is some gamesmanship in the polls, but to consistently misinterpret them is sad. 2) When are Republicans going to learn they will never win by nominating liberal RINO candidates? Time and time again this happens. People voted against Obama, but almost no one voted for Mitt Romney. Of course what can you expect when you pick a candidate that lost...

I spent a lot of time following the interpretations that many on here had been offering in regards to the polls. They made sense and that appeals to the Spock side of me. Yes, I'm a nerd. I'm looking for those who are interested in understanding why our interpretation of the polls failed to begin sharing their continued observations.

It’s on! The moment we’ve all been waiting for – when America goes to vote and chose the man it wants to hate for the next four years. Whatever your party affiliation and whoever your candidate, remember: it’s never too late to start stockpiling food. What do we know so far? None of this is perfect, and a lot of this is probably worth disregarding, but here's some tantalising early finds from exit polls – which aren’t supposed to tell us how folks have voted until polls close. Associated Press reports that, unsurprisingly, 6 out 10 think the economy is...

The Voters Have Not Been Kind to Pollsters Since 2002 By Jim Geraghty November 5, 2012 7:18 A.M. From the final Morning Jolt before Election Day: A Quick Trip Down the Memory Lane of Recent PollingSo a lot of people who don’t read me that closely are going to look at what follows and interpret it as “Jim’s saying the polls are always wrong.� That’s not what I’m saying, but I’m prefacing all of this with that prediction, because we’ve all seen that when people don’t like what you have to say, they attempt to cut off discussion by calling...