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It seems like a lifetime ago that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s favorability ratings were something that would inspire fits of jealousy in any politician. In fact, Clinton’s monumental popularity was not a feature of the distant past. As recently as January, a Gallup poll showed that the former secretary had a net favorability rating with the public of 19 points. Not even a year later, that public esteem for Clinton has disappeared. The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that the public is essentially split on whether Clinton is “likeable enough.” 43 percent of respondents said...

Democrats hoping for some political relief from the economy had better change their dreams. An astonishing 30% of Americans think the country is on the right track with 62% saying the country is going in the wrong direction, according to an average by RealClearPolitics. I don’t know who that 30% is, but to their loved ones I can only tell you there are medications that can help treat those delusions without many side effects. And the good news is that there are medications with LOTS of side effects that can help treat those delusions as well-- you know, if you’re...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) job approval rating is almost the same as President Barack Obama's in Kentucky, a new poll found. The Herald-Leader/WKYT Bluegross poll released Thursday evening found 32 percent of those surveyed said they approve of McConnell's job performance while 60 percent said they disapproved of the job the top Senate Republican has done. That rating is almost the same as Obama's approval rating in the state, which is 34 percent and his disapproval is about 60 percent. What's more, the poll found Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) holds a small 4-point lead over...

Gallup tracks daily the percentage of Americans who approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as president. Daily results are based on telephone interviews with approximately 1,500 national adults; Margin of error is ±3 percentage points.

Congress has itself to blame for its low ratings among the American people. Policymaking is all about choices; it is the calculus of weighing costs and benefits and the distribution of those costs and benefits. In theory, there are lots of policies that can make everyone better off, but they can only be accomplished by redistributing the gains of the policy.

Suddenly, all the shutdown nastiness and intense anti-Republican sentiment seems like a distant memory. Obamacare has been front and center for weeks, and public opinion has adjusted accordingly. Pew produced some very negative data for the president late last week, and now Quinnipiac confirms the undeniable downward trend. One upper-cut to the jaw after the next: (1) President Obama's overall job approval rating is deep underwater at (39/54). It's not pretty across the board: Independents (30/63), women (40/51), Hispanics (41/47), and young voters (36/54). The telling right track vs. wrong track number stands at a miserable (21/78). (2) On issues,...

<p>Fully six in 10 of Americans participating in a new poll say House Speaker John Boehner should leave his post in the House.</p> <p>The survey, a CNN/IRC International poll conducted between Friday and Sunday, at the tail end of the government shutdown, also revealed that 54 percent of respondents aren’t happy that the GOP controls the House — a dire sign for the Republican Party, as the country prepares for the next round of elections.</p>

President Obama’s approval rating has taken another hit, dropping for the third quarter in a row, this time to 44.5 percent between July 20-Oct. 19, Gallup reported on Monday. That’s a three point decline from the previous quarter, and it is the third largest quarter-to-quarter decline of his five-year (19-quarter) presidency. Obama’s highest approval rating (63 percent) came during his first quarter as president, and by the fifth quarter, it had dropped to 48.8 percent. Obama’s lowest quarterly approval rating, 41 percent, came in the 11th quarter (third year) of his presidency. …

President Obama's job approval polls are declining, proving Abraham Lincoln's admonition that you can't fool all the people all the time. The Gallup Poll reported Thursday that Obama's job approval grade has fallen to an embarrassing 46 percent and that 47 percent of those polled disapprove of his second term performance, up by three points. To add insult to injury, Obama has to swallow the news that his Republican predecessor, on whom he has blamed all of his problems, is now much more popular -- in fact, he's more popular than Obama right now. A separate Gallup survey finds that...

He doesn't need a campaign platform for the primaries in 2016. All he needs, really, is this with a single word in 120-point font underneath: “ELECTABILITY.”NBC/WSJ took his temperature in their new poll too and found similar parity across segments, although the numbers weren’t as robust: He’s also energized certain segments of the Republican Party with his tough fiscal approach to governing New Jersey, and has proven popular among Garden State residents for his style of crisis management.It’s a combination that’s led to 40 percent of Republicans, 41 percent of independents and 43 percent of Democrats seeing him in a...

Hillary Clinton’s favorability rating dropped significantly in a Quinnipiac University poll released Friday, as the months-long investigation into the terrorist attacks in Benghazi have begun to drag on the former secretary of State. According to the survey, 52 percent said they have a favorable view of Clinton, against 40 unfavorable. That’s down from her all-time high of 61 percent favorable and 34 unfavorable in February of this year. “Her score is down substantially from her all-time high score in February,” said Quinnipiac director of polling Peter A. Brown in a statement. “The drop in favorability is substantial among men, Republicans...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remains the 2016 presidential candidate to beat, but her handling of the Benghazi, Libya assassination of the U.S. ambassador, panned by the public, has significantly knocked her approval ratings down from an all-time high of just three months ago, according to a new poll. While her favorability rating in February was 61 percent, a new Quinnipiac University poll out Friday had it cobbled down to 52 percent and her once double-digit lead over potential GOP presidential challengers Jeb Bush and Sen. Rand Paul has been cut to less than 10 percent. "Her score is...

30 minutes ago Poll: Pelosi least liked congressional leader Posted by CNN Political Unit (CNN) – Republican candidates running for office sometimes use Nancy Pelosi's name like a curse word. Perhaps they've seen polling that indicates the House Democratic leader is the best known but least liked congressional leader, as indicated by a new Gallup survey released Wednesday. According to the poll, 48% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Pelosi, while 31% view her in a favorable light. Former Gov. Mark Sanford, for example, plans to solo debate against Pelosi's positions Wednesday as he campaigns for a special congressional...

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s approval rating among Republican voters in South Carolina has plunged by fourteen points in just two months – evidence of growing dissatisfaction with his increasingly leftward ideological bent. According to the results of a new Winthrop University poll, Graham’s approval rating among GOP voters in the Palmetto State is 57.5 percent – down from 71.6 percent in February. “This drop corresponds to the entry of two vocal challengers, and discussion of a third, into the primary race against him,” the Winthrop pollsters note. It also comes on the heels of Graham’s high profile attack against fiscally...

Americans’ opinion of the federal government has fallen to a record low even as they continue to view local and state governments favorably, according to Pew Research Center survey released on Monday. … The March survey showed Democrats with a more favorable opinion than Republicans of the federal government, at 41 percent to 13 percent. … The poll shows that 63 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of their local government, virtually unchanged since 2007. Fifty-seven percent have a favorable view of their state governments, up 5 percentage points from 2012. …

At first blush, the reaction to this Gallup poll is … so what? Barack Obama managed to get himself elected to a second term anyway, even with historically anemic approval numbers. But there’s more to this than just last November: President Barack Obama averaged 49.1% job approval during his first term in office, among the lowest for post-World War II presidents. Only Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford had lower job approval averages. Obama’s first-term average is most similar to Bill Clinton’s. Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, and Dwight Eisenhower were the most popular first-term presidents. Obama’s first-term approval average, like those...

For the first time since January, Democrats now lead Republicans on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending September 9, 2012. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for the Democrat in their district’s congressional race if the election were held today, while 42% would choose the Republican instead. The last time the Democrats held a lead over the Republicans was in late January.

Gallup tracks daily the percentage of Americans who approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as president. Daily results are based on telephone interviews with approximately 1,500 national adults; Margin of error is ±3 percentage points. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE CHART

GALLUP: Obama Ratings Negative in Most States, Highest in D.C. "Obama’s approval rating is below 50 percent in 37 states ... The president is most popular in Washington DC, where his job approval rating is an astonishing 83 percent." POLITICO: In Oakland, "[o]fficials say the window at Obama's office at 16th Street and Telegraph Avenue was broken as more than 100 protesters marched around 12 p.m. Friday ET."

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans' opinions of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts are now much more negative than they were seven years ago, with the most recent reading coming soon after he joined the four Democratic appointees on the court to uphold the U.S. healthcare law. Republicans' favorable rating of Roberts is down 40 percentage points from 2005, while Democrats' is up 19. Gallup did not measure Americans' opinions of Roberts between September 2005 and the most recent survey, conducted July 9-12. It is a reasonable assumption, however, that a good deal of the shift in attitudes occurred as...