Governors of several major states in an effort to improve lagging student performance are seeking ways to get rid of poor teachers by weakening or eliminating longstanding teacher tenure policies. Most Americans agree that it’s too difficult right now to get poor teachers out of the classroom.
Most voters continue to believe that the policies of the federal government encourage illegal immigration, but voters are now almost evenly divided over whether it's better to let the federal government or individual states enforce immigration laws.
Most campaign rhetoric and political punditry is underpinned by an assumption that perfect solutions are possible, if only people would have the good sense to adopt the candidate's or the pundit's course of action. Alas, that is not always so.
The majority of voters still support repeal of the new national health care law and remain convinced that it will drive up the cost and hurt the quality of health care in the country.
Waistlines, watch out! The Girl Scouts have started selling their cookies again this year.
An early look at potential 2012 match-ups indicates that the election is likely shaping up as a referendum on President Obama. That’s typical when an incumbent runs for reelection.
After weeks of hype, the big day is finally here. The Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers will face off in Cowboys Stadium, and most Americans will be watching.
The January employment report was a complete snow job. Abominable winter blizzards across the country caused 886,000 workers to report “not at work due to bad weather,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is 600,000 more than the normal 300,000 not at work for the average January of the past decade.
The United States has military defense treaties with over 50 nations around the globe from obvious ones like the United Kingdom and Germany to less predictable ones like Costa Rica and Iceland. What do Americans think we should do if these countries are attacked?
If you’re a sports fan, you’ve likely heard the slogan “Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.” But viewers of this Sunday’s Super Bowl aren’t letting this claim impact their predictions. In fact, they’re predicting a loss for the team they think has the better defense and a better coach.
One of the more disagreeable traits of many tea party "spokespeople," aside from their loose connection with facts, is their zest for threatening Republicans who don't leap when they say "jump."
The drama on the streets of Cairo has many Americans thinking about national security and the role our country plays in the world these days.
I had never seen anything like it. I sat in the movie theater holding my breath as Marlon Brando wielded the stick of butter. For the sake of families who might be reading, I'll say no more, except that "Last Tango in Paris" was, depending on your perspective, either a very sexy movie or a very scary one.
One-out-of-three Super Bowl viewers think the commercials are better than the game.
A plurality of voters think the United States should remove troops from Western Europe and Japan and let them defend themselves. But when it comes to South Korea, most voters think we should stay.
More than half the states are challenging the constitutionality of the new federal health care law in court, many focusing on the requirement that every American must have health insurance. More voters than ever oppose that requirement and think states should have the right to opt out of some or all of the health care law.
Barack Obama, like all American politicians, likes to portray himself as future-oriented and open to technological progress. Yet the vision he set out in his State of the Union address is oddly antique and disturbingly static.
In today’s economic climate, few voters consider themselves liberals on fiscal policy issues, but there’s a little more divergence of opinion when it comes to social issues.
Thanks to Tim Storey and his colleagues at the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Crystal Ball can share with you the most up-to-date picture of power control in the states. It is summed up nicely in the two maps and one graph, below.
To his fellow Egyptians and to most observers across the world, Mohamed ElBaradei looks like a hero -- an international diplomat who might well have lived out his days in the comforts of Geneva and New York, but returned home to provide leadership despite serious personal peril. But to leading figures on the American right, ElBaradei is a figure to be mocked, scorned and dismissed as a stooge of darker forces in Egyptian politics and the Mideast.
