Ben Bernanke begins the formal process tomorrow for confirmation to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, but 41% of Americans think President Obama should name someone new to the post.
Speaking as a big skeptic of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan, and as a major critic of nation-building, I basically liked President Obama’s surge speech last night. I think he did himself some good with it. I notice today that General McChrystal spoke positively about both the speech and the policy.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters nationwide favor limiting the amount of money a jury can award a plaintiff in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 29% disagree and 14% are not sure.
Regularly reading the Financial Times (Britain's leading financial daily) can put an American in a fighting spirit. At least, it puts this American (transplanted former Englishman and naturalized American citizen that I am) in such a disposition.
Only 30% of U.S. voters now say the country is heading in the right direction, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national survey. That's the lowest finding on this question since mid-February but is still 13 points higher than a year ago.
President Obama detailed his plan for winning – and ending – the war in Afghanistan in a long-awaited speech last night at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Eighty-nine percent (89%) of U.S. voters have been following recent news about Afghanistan, including 51% who say they’ve been following the news Very Closely.
For many Americans, a house still doesn’t look like a safe bet for a home.
The last Thanksgiving of my childhood started out promisingly enough. It was 1969, and we were going to my parents' best friends' house. I had a crush on their second oldest son, and with luck (a lot of it), we'd end up in his room listening to Led Zeppelin. He was much cooler than I was, but I was who would be there on Thanksgiving.
Economic confidence among America's small business owners plummeted in November, as more owners cited serious concerns about cash flow and saw economic conditions for their own businesses getting worse. The Discover(R) Small Business Watch(SM)index fell 12 points in November to 76.5 from 88.5 in October.
The number of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats fell by nearly two percentage points in November. Added to declines earlier in the year, the number of Democrats in the nation has fallen by five percentage points during 2009.
Congress, beware. Voters are now evenly divided over whether their own congressman deserves another term in office.
When tracking President Obama’s job approval on a daily basis, people sometimes get so caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations that they miss the bigger picture. To look at the longer-term trends, Rasmussen Reports compiles the numbers on a full-month basis, and the results can be seen in the graphics below.
This just in from the Times of London: After the leak of highly embarrassing e-mail messages from the University of East Anglia's influential Climatic Research Unit, CRU has been forced to admit that it dumped "the original raw" climate data used to bolster the case for human-caused global warming, while retaining only the "value-added" -- read: massaged -- data.
Black Friday was obviously a busy Friday for many Americans, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. They’re also a little more willing to spend on gifts now.
Republican candidates have a seven-point lead over Democrats for the second straight week in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.
After three months of gains, the Rasmussen Employment Index dropped more than four points in November to its lowest level since July.
Members of Congress may rely upon the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), but voters are skeptical. The CBO has projected that the health care legislation now being considered by Congress would make the federal budget deficit a bit smaller over the coming decade, but only 17% of voters believe that’s true.
This is a nation of goose-necked children hunched over their electronics in front of a TV. They will turn into goose-necked adults with vitamin D deficiencies, the result of spending their sunny hours downloading songs in darkened rooms. Obesity will plague many of them.
Voters remain more confident in Republicans than in Democrats this month on virtually all of the key electoral issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports. But that confidence is not quite as strong as a month ago when the GOP led on all 10.
Thirty-three percent (33%) of voters nationwide believe that their representative in Congress is the best person for the job. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 42% disagree and 25% are not sure.
