Tonight’s State of the Union address marks the halfway point of President Obama’s first term in office, and the number of voters who blame the president's policies for the country's continuing economic problems is at its lowest level since early October 2009.
So what if Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich decide not to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 or their campaigns falter in the early going? Who will the GOP turn to?
History tells us that primary races are all about name recognition at this early stage, and right now, not surprisingly the best-known Republican hopefuls are running ahead among likely party primary voters.
Following the House's repeal of the national health care law last week, sending the issue on to the Senate, most voters continue to favor repeal, but support has fallen to its lowest level since late October. Fewer voters also now believe the law will force them to switch their health insurance coverage.
It’s a tie game when you ask voters which they are more interested in watching – President Obama’s State of the Union speech tomorrow night or the upcoming Super Bowl.
Historically speaking, being vice president has generally been a thankless but not too demanding job. Joe Biden, unlike his predecessor Dick Cheney, seems to be following this more traditional model, and voters are viewing him slightly more favorably these days.
Things appear to be looking up a bit for President Obama who on Friday posted his highest job approval numbers in nearly a year in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.
A sizable number of voters plan to follow President Obama’s State of the Union speech next Tuesday night but acknowledge that presidents generally don’t accomplish most of what they promise in their annual addresses to the nation.
A survey conducted just before Barack Obama’s highly-publicized talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao this week shows that voters continue to believe the president’s ideas on foreign policy don’t quite match their own.
With midterm elections over and a new Congress seated, more voters believe most members of Congress care what's on their minds.
Voters give mixed marks to the media’s handling of the recent tragic shootings in Arizona, and most say the coverage focused too much on the political angle of the story.
House Speaker John Boehner like many of his predecessors has pledged that the new Congress will be more open and transparent than the previous one, but voters want even more openness than he has promised.
Although the Congressional Budget Office claims repealing the health care law will increase the federal budget deficit, a plurality of voters disagrees with that assessment. At the same time, most voters feel free market competition will do more to cut health care costs than government regulation.
Most voters have a favorable opinion of President Obama’s response to the recent shootings in Arizona but feel the incident will have no lasting impact on the political debate in the country.
Support for repeal of the national health care law passed last year remains steady, as most voters continue to believe the law will increase the federal budget deficit.
Voters for the first time are slightly less fearful of having their health care decisions made by the federal government than by private insurers.
As the nation prepares to honor civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, Americans show little confidence in the state of race relations in the country today and into the future.
It’s back to business for the new Congress this coming week following the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of six others in Arizona. First up in the House is a vote to repeal the national health care bill passed last year by Democrats in the previous Congress.
Voters overwhelmingly want to see last year’s health care law changed, but there is substantial disagreement about how best to do it.
Despite the change of control in the House, voters continue to believe Congress can screw things up worse than they already are.
