If it's in the News, it's in our Polls. Public opinion polling since 2003.

Political Commentary

Most Recent Releases

White letter R on blue background
September 3, 2013

Spending Behind Your Mate's Back By Froma Harrop

A little infidelity, a little cheating, is OK in a marriage -- or even protective of it -- if the sneaking is just about money. Note the emphasis on "little."

White letter R on blue background
September 3, 2013

With Crime Down, the Nation Moves to Ease Get-Tough Policies By Michael Barone

Americans change their minds on some issues. One of them is crime and punishment. 

White letter R on blue background
August 30, 2013

Panhandling Is Not Harmless By Froma Harrop

Indianapolis offers the full urban deal: great architecture, hot restaurants, famous museums and a walkable downtown. But it also has had one of the worst panhandler problems I've seen. At almost every street corner, it seemed, someone was squeezing you for money.

White letter R on blue background
August 28, 2013

Trains to Nowhere By John Stossel

When Democrats and Republicans agree, I get nervous. It often means that they agree to grab my wallet.

White letter R on blue background
August 28, 2013

We All Need Moderate Republicans By Froma Harrop

Moderate Republicans are, were, good things. I use the past tense "were" because as they became rarities, the centrists' chief function was preserving majorities in Congress for their radicalized party.    

White letter R on blue background
August 27, 2013

Obama Could Learn From FDR on How to Get Things Done By Michael Barone

Evidence of the astonishing incompetence of the Obama administration continues to roll in.    

White letter R on blue background
August 23, 2013

Stop and Frisk Doesn't Target Minorities, It Protects Them By Michael Barone

New York City seems on the verge of making the same mistake that Detroit made 40 years ago. The mistake is to abolish the NYPD practice referred to as stop and frisk.    

White letter R on blue background
August 23, 2013

An NSA Drama Goes Crackpot By Froma Harrop

Journalist Glenn Greenwald's partner was detained at London's Heathrow Airport for nine hours -- no waterboarding or electric shocks, just pointed questions and confiscation of David Michael Miranda's computer gear. That prompted Greenwald to threaten Britain with more of his writings.

White letter R on blue background
August 22, 2013

Conflicts? Deficits? Why Reporters Ignore the Real Story of the Clinton Foundation By Joe Conason

The mere prospect of Hillary Rodham Clinton running for president again is evidently provoking outrage among old adversaries -- from Rush Limbaugh and Fox News to Maureen Dowd -- whose appetite for bogus "Clinton scandals" will never be sated. With the fizzling of Benghazi after an official State Department probe found no wrongdoing by the former Secretary of State, her critics have moved on, casting a gimlet eye on the charitable foundation built by her husband, the former president, over the past decade. Although Hillary has mostly been very busy elsewhere, the foundation provides an ample target for speculation and spite -- so long as critics ignore what it actually does for people around the world.

White letter R on blue background
August 21, 2013

Beware Warrior Cops By John Stossel

We need police to catch murderers, thieves and con men, and so we give them special power -- the power to use force on others.  Sadly, today's police use that power to invade people's homes over accusations of trivial, nonviolent offenses -- and often do it with tanks, battering rams and armor you'd expect on battlefields.

In his book "Rise of the Warrior Cop," Radley Balko recounts the rise of police SWAT teams (SWAT stands for Special Weapons And Tactics) armed with heavy military equipment.  SWAT raids began as rarely used methods of dealing with violent situations, like hostage-takings.

White letter R on blue background
August 20, 2013

Use Private Capital for Roads and Bridges, Not Taxpayer Money By Michael Barone

This Congress has been criticized for not passing many laws -- and praised for that in some quarters. And it's true that in quantitative terms its productivity has been low.    

White letter R on blue background
August 15, 2013

What Really Makes Chelsea Clinton Run (but not for Public Office) By Joe Conason

To discover what Chelsea Clinton is doing with her life -- and why -- shouldn't pose much of a challenge to any reasonably industrious journalist. In recent months, after all, she has stepped into the spotlight to advance the causes that excite her. Yet the political press still seems far more inclined to ruminate over her supposed ambitions rather than report her real concerns.

White letter R on blue background
August 14, 2013

Battle of the Sexes By John Stossel

Women make only 77 cents per each dollar made by males. Outrageous! Sex discrimination!

White letter R on blue background
August 13, 2013

Crime Bankrupts Detroit; Public Unions Mug Two California Cities By Michael Barone

In the Industrial Midwest, the city government of Detroit went into bankruptcy in July. Out in California, the city governments of Stockton and San Bernardino entered bankruptcy proceedings in 2012.    

White letter R on blue background
August 13, 2013

Lawsuits and Defensive Medicine: The Reality By Froma Harrop

Guy limps off the tennis court with an obvious sprained ankle. The doctor tells him to go home, elevate the leg and put some ice where it hurts.

White letter R on blue background
August 9, 2013

GOP of Two Minds, at Least, on Immigration By Froma Harrop

On immigration, the Republican Party is trapped in two trains of thought, each speeding along the wrong track. At the tea party end, there's absolute resistance to normalizing the status of illegal immigrants. On the cheap-labor side, there's this big push to admit as many unskilled immigrants as possible.

White letter R on blue background
August 9, 2013

Cheating Is Rife in Colleges -- by Admissions Officers By Michael Barone

What is the most intellectually dishonest profession around? My nomination: the admissions officers at highly selective colleges and universities.

August 9, 2013

2016 Will Not Feature Christie vs. Clinton By Scott Rasmussen

One of the sure signs that political activists have too much time on their hands is all the chatter about who will win the 2016 presidential nominations.

White letter R on blue background
August 8, 2013

To Repair The Damage Done in NSA Blowup, Start With Clapper By Joe Conason

With the conviction of Bradley Manning and asylum granted to Edward Snowden in Russia, it may be time to turn attention away from the controversy over their actions and toward the government -- specifically, the intelligence community. Whatever ultimate judgment is leveled on Manning's or Snowden's actions, they have raised real questions about the ways that the United States gathers, uses and classifies information.

White letter R on blue background
August 8, 2013

Killing Giggles By John Stossel

Global average temperature has been flat for a decade. But frightening myths about global warming continue.

We're told there are more hurricanes now. We're told that hurricanes are stronger. But the National Hurricane Center says it isn't so. 

Meteorologist Maria Molina told me it's not surprising that climatologists assumed hurricanes would get worse. "Hurricanes need warm ocean waters," but it turns out that "hurricanes are a lot more complicated than just warm ocean waters."