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.
Most U.S. voters believe the country’s military strategy should focus on defending the United States and its interests, but a sizable number thinks the strategy should concentrate on keeping the world peaceful instead. Either way, voters see economic challenges as a much bigger threat to the United States than challenges on the military front.
Most Americans believe movies have a negative impact on society and lead to an increase in violence.
The new national health care law has made her one of the most powerful women in America, but nearly half the country’s voters don’t seem to know who she is.
Forget all that talk about bipartisan civility. When some 200 conservatives showed up for a weekend conference hosted by the libertarian-leaning industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch in Rancho Mirage, Calif., there was no welcome wagon. Instead, seminar attendees were met by close to 1,000 activists protesting the meeting and waving banners. News reports showed a swastika and cute slogans like: "Quarantine the Kochs" and "Koch kills."
In his State of the Union address last week, U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledged that America’s “free enterprise system is what drives innovation.” He also said that if America is to “win the future,” then it must first “win the race to educate our kids.”
When it comes to presidents and reelection, two things seem clear. If they appear to be in control of events, they win. If events seem to be controlling them, they lose.
Voters are worried that they’ll pay a lot more at the pump because of the ongoing political unrest in Egypt.
There's little change in the number of U.S. voters who think the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror, but the number who feel the terrorists are winning has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two years.
Thirty-two percent (32%) 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, January 30. That’s up three points from last week and the highest finding since mid-October.
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.
Most U.S. voters believe America's military is the most powerful in the world.
Voters give mixed marks to President Obama’s response to the crisis in Egypt, and many think United Nations involvement would make things worse.
How did Obama ever think that his program would pass constitutional muster? How could he imagine that the Interstate Commerce clause could cover something that wasn't interstate (health insurance cannot be sold over state lines) and wasn't commerce (failure to buy insurance is not commerce) would stand up in court? He was so sure that he would win any constitutional challenge that he arrogantly failed to put a severability clause in the bill so that it would survive even if parts were stricken down.
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.
Decades of autocratic government and a lack of free elections are, of course, the main drivers of the political upheaval in Egypt. But did the sinking dollar and skyrocketing food prices trigger the massive unrest now occurring in Egypt -- or the greater Arab world for that matter?
