Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- About half of U.S. adults say they are following news about the Tea Party movement, a poll released Thursday indicated.More than two in five, 43 percent, say they agree with the Tea Party's core principles, Angus Reid Public Opinion reported, while 25 percent disagree. The number of people following Tea Party news has increased 8 percentage points since June to 50 percent, while the number in agreement is up 4 percentage points.Nearly a third (32 percent) of those polled say the Tea Party will have a positive effect on U.S. politics while 21 percent say...

Public approval of Congress now sits at 18 percent, lower than it has been in any prior midterm election year since Gallup started polling public approval of Congress in 1974, according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted Sept. 13-16. In March, approval of Congress actually sank to 16 percent, the second-lowest approval rating Congress has ever received in the Gallup poll. After that, it climbed to 23 percent in April and then started declining again, hitting 21 percent in May, 20 percent in June, 20 percent in July, and 19 percent in August. “Congress’ current approval rating is now approaching...

A plurality of Americans (43%) believe that government programs increase poverty in America. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 22% of the nation’s adults believe that those programs decrease poverty. Twenty-three percent (23%) say they have no impact. There is a fundamental difference of opinion on this topic between the nation’s Political Class and Mainstream Americans. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of the Political Class believe that government programs reduce poverty. But 56% of those in the Mainstream think government programs actually increase the amount of poverty in the United States. Thirty-three percent (33%) of all voters say...

The new Fox News poll of the Delaware Senate race shows Democratic nominee Chris Coons continuing to enjoy a double-digit lead against Republican Christine O'Donnell. The numbers: Coons 54%, O'Donnell 39%. The survey of likely voters has a ±3% margin of error. There is no previous Fox News poll of this race. However, this poll was conducted through a Rasmussen offshoot, Pulse Opinion Research, which performs made-to-order robopolls. The previous Rasmussen poll from last week, taken right after O'Donnell's upset win in the primary over moderate Congressman Mike Castle, gave Coons a lead of 53%-42%. This poll also confirms the...

And it’s not even particularly close. In a revealing portrait of likely voters in this midterm cycle, a majority of respondents to Rasmussen’s survey say that Sarah Palin more closely represents their point of view than does Barack Obama. The man who won the 2008 presidential election, on the other hand, only resonates with four in ten likely voters: Fifty-two percent (52%) of Likely U.S. Voters say their own views are closer to Sarah Palin’s than they are to President Obama’s, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just 40% say their views are closer to the president’s...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-five percent (45%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18 (see trends). Last week, the president declared that “the policies that we have put in place have moved us in the right direction.” Most in the Political Class agree, but most Mainstream Voters do not.

American voters by a wide margin, 60 to 28 percent, disapprove of the way President Barack Obama is handling illegal immigration, and by an even wider margin, 68 to 25 percent, they favor stricter enforcement over integrating illegal immigrants into U.S. society, according to a new national poll by Quinnipiac University. The poll also showed that American voters, 48 to 45 percent, oppose birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens who are born on U.S. soil. A total of 1,905 voters were interviewed for the poll, which was conducted Aug. 31 – Sept. 7. Among the number of voters...

Tilted toward the GOP from the start of the year, the political environment has grown even more favorable for Republicans and rockier for President Barack Obama and his Democrats over the long primary season that just ended with a bang. With November's matchups set and the general election campaign beginning in earnest Wednesday, an Associated Press-GfK poll found that more Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction than did before the nomination contests got under way in February. Also, more now disapprove of the job Obama is doing. And more now want to see Republicans in control...

Most voters continue to favor repeal of the national health care law, but a plurality believes that repeal of the controversial measure is unlikely. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% of Likely U.S. voters favor repeal of the law, with 45% who Strongly Favor it. Thirty-eight percent (38%) oppose repeal, including 30% who are Strongly Opposed. A majority has favored repeal of the legislation every single week since Congress passed the health care bill in March. Support for repeal has ranged from a low of 52% to a high of 63%. But just 39% of voters...

Heading into the final two months of the mid-term election campaign, most voters believe that Democrats in Congress want to raise taxes and spending while Republicans in Congress want to cut taxes and spending. At the same time, most voters believe that reducing taxes and spending would be good for the economy.

The electoral tidal wave heading for Democrats in November is growing more powerful by the day. The latest bad news for Team Obama/Reid/Pelosi comes from Gallup in the form of its weekly generic ballot. Among registered voters, Republicans lead Democrats by 10 points (51% - 41%); the largest margin in Gallup's history of tracking the midterm generic ballot for Congress. But Election Day could end even worse than that for Democratic candidates.

It gets tiresome hearing the conventional wisdom say that the Democrats will likely keep control of the Senate. Far from it. To gain control, Republicans must win ten new seats. An analysis of the latest polling data suggests that Republicans currently hold the lead in eight pick-up states: Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wisconsin, Washington State, Arkansas, Delaware, North Dakota, and Indiana. In a ninth, Illinois, the candidates are tied and, in the tenth – Nevada – Reid is ahead by only one point. And, for insurance, Boxer in California and Gillibrand in New York are both below 50% of the vote. In...

Louisiana has face two major crisis in recent years. The first was hurricane Katrina handled by former President Bush. The second was the Gulf oil spill handled by current President Obama. A PPP poll (pdf) asked likely voters who they think is better at handling crisis, Obama or Bush. 54% chose President Bush. Only 33% picked President Obama.

As a group, Americans of the Muslim faith give Barack Obama the highest job approval rating of any major religion. A new Gallup Poll of 275,000 adults this morning finds that while the Democrat's overall approval ratings have dropped across all faiths -- even those Americans without any -- Muslims continue to approve of him the most. And you'll never guess which faith based in Utah thinks the least of the 44th president's job. Seventy-eight percent of Muslims (down from 86% after Obama's inauguration) now approve of the president's 19-month job performance, while less than one-in-four Mormons (24%) do (down...

A new poll shows that while Americans continue to feel they are losing their freedoms under President Obama's agenda of government takeover of private companies, health care and energy, they are beginning to fight back with public statements such as bumper stickers and political buttons. "This may well represent a mainstream rebellion of the masses who are tired of being cowed by a national mainstream media that has offered little objective criticism of the president," said Fritz Wenzel of Wenzel Strategies. The August WND Freedom Index poll was conducted Aug. 13-16 with an automated technology calling a random sampling of...

Republican Meg Whitman has moved out ahead of Democrat Jerry Brown in the California governor's race after months of being in statistical or actual ties, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Aug. 24. Whitman, the former head of eBay, leads Brown, the state's attorney general, by 48 percent to 40 percent with 6 percent favoring some other candidate and 6 percent undecided. The margin of error is 4 points. (Snip) When "leaners" are counted -- those voters who did not express an initial preference until pressed for a choice -- Whitman leads by 51 percent to 43 percent.

You’ll remember that Rasmussen has actually been the good news poll for Barbara Boxer in her re-election campaign. The last Field Poll showed her trailing Carly Fiorina, and so did Survey USA, while Rasmussen at the same time had her up five points, 45/40. Now her Rasmussen firewall shows signs of crumbling as it has her lead down to a single point, 44/43: Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer and her Republican challenger Carly Fiorina are now essentially tied in California’s U.S. Senate race, moving the state from Leans Democratic to a Toss-Up in the Rasmussen ReportsElection 2010 Senate Balance of Power...

Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on all 10 of the important issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports. The GOP has consistently been trusted on most issues for months now, but in July they held the lead on only nine of the key issues. Republicans lead Democrats 47% to 39% on the economy, which remains the most important issue to voters. Those numbers are nearly identical to those found in June. Republicans have held the advantage on the economy since May of last year. But for the first time in months, Republicans now hold a slight edge on the...

More Americans now disapprove of President Barack Obama than approve of him as high unemployment and government spending scare voters ahead of November's congressional elections, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Tuesday. In the latest grim news for Obama's Democrats, 72 percent of people said they were very worried about joblessness and 67 percent were very concerned about government spending. .... Obama's disapproval rating was 52 percent in Tuesday's poll, overtaking his approval rating for the first time in an Ipsos poll. Only 45 percent of people said they approved of the president's performance, down from 48 percent last month. That...

(CNSNews.com) - For the first time in his presidency, Barack Obama’s average weekly “disapproval” rating has hit 50 percent, according to the Gallup Poll. Each week, Gallup interviews about 3,500 American adults, asking them whether they approve or disapprove of the job President Obama is doing. On a daily basis, the polling firm publishes a three-day rolling average of the results; and, on a weekly basis, it publishes the weekly average. During the week of Aug. 16-22, President Obama’s average approval was 43 percent and his average disapproval was 50 percent. This marked both Obama’s lowest average weekly approval rating...