What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending May 7, 2011
Osama bin Laden went down, and President Obama has gone up – in the polls, that is.
Osama bin Laden went down, and President Obama has gone up – in the polls, that is.
These are very tricky times for conservatives in America. For starters, they don't really have a candidate. OK, that's familiar. More unusual: They don't really have an opponent to hate.
A plurality of Americans say high gas prices have had a significant impact on their daily lives and that they are driving less now than they were a year ago.
Even more than the improvement in his overall job approval ratings, grades for President Obama’s national security performance have bounced higher following the weekend killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. Navy SEALs. But ratings for the president’s handling of economic issues have held relatively steady.
If the recent budget debate has taught Americans anything, it is that the power of the gavel in Congress can be as powerful as the executive pen in the White House. In the blossoming 2012 campaign, we should, therefore, focus not only on the presidential election, but also the elections for Congress.
What did Pakistan know and when did it know it? Americans overwhelmingly believe top Pakistani officials knew Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts and strongly oppose further U.S. aid to the country where the top terrorist was found.
The death of Osama bin Laden, inflicted by crack U.S. Special Forces personnel acting on the orders of President Barack Obama, is undoubtedly a triumph for the embattled commander in chief. But will it provide him tangible political help when he stands for reelection a year and a half from now?
Most voters continue to feel they have very little in common ideologically with the average member of Congress. But Republicans in Congress are now seen as more conservative than they were a month ago.
San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey explained in The San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday Insight his opposition to Secure Communities, the federal program that automatically passes new arrestees' fingerprints to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The program applies to "everyone booked into a county jail," Hennessey complained -- "even (in) a minor matter, such as having no driver's license in one's possession in a traffic stop."
A plurality of Americans still think 21 is the proper drinking age, but support is up slightly for dropping it to 18. Perhaps not surprisingly, younger adults are more enthusiastic about lowering the drinking age than their elders.
Voters strongly believe the government can do something to lower rising gas prices, but they have mixed feelings about dropping the federal gas tax.
A month ago, voter confidence in U.S. efforts in the War on Terror fell to its lowest level in over four years. Now, that confidence has soared following the weekend killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. Navy SEALs. Voters are also much more confident that the country is safer today than it was before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks that bin Laden orchestrated.
A month ago, voter confidence in U.S. efforts in the War on Terror fell to its lowest level in over four years. Now, that confidence has soared following the weekend killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. Navy SEALs. Voters are also much more confident that the country is safer today than it was before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks that bin Laden orchestrated.
The big story was that they got him, not that he was stopped. Osama bin Laden was already stopped.
Most voters seem to think The Donald is mostly a media creation and isn’t a serious contender for the presidency. They also increasingly don’t like him.
In the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden, I found myself agreeing with Charles Krauthammer that this was a global game-changer for American greatness. It was a gutsy and courageous decision by President Obama, brilliantly executed by the Navy SEALs and all the intelligence and support behind them.
Americans remain highly concerned about the possibility of a terrorist attack in the United States in the near future, but that concern has not increased because of the killing of Osama bin Laden. Most also feel bin Laden’s death will not worsen U.S. relations with the Muslim world.
Let's cheerfully and ungrudgingly give credit to Barack Obama for approving the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.
Consumers' confidence sharply rebounded in January, fueled by a surge in the number of middle-income consumers who see improvement in the U.S. economy and in their personal finances are improving, according to the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor.
Twenty-five percent (25%) of Likely U.S. Voters say the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey taken the week ending Sunday, May 1. The survey was completed just before news of the death of Osama bin Laden became public.