It all looked so easy in August 2008, when Sen. Barack Obama spoke before the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The Democrats were going to win in November, storm Washington with their reforming ways, and because they were so much smarter than everyone else, they'd know how to get the American economy cooking. There was no doubt as the enthusiastic Invesco Field throng cheered and chanted, "Yes, we can."
Fifty-three percent (53%) of likely voters now believe that decreasing the level of government spending will help the U.S. economy. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 24% of voters think that cutting federal spending will hurt the economy. Eleven percent (11%) say it will have no impact, and another 11% aren’t sure.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 66% of Americans believe leaving their job will be their choice. That’s up a point since November and up five points from a year ago. Just 16% say their employer will decide when it’s time for them to go.
Thirty-eight percent (38%) of voters say the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror. That’s the third time in four Rasmussen Reports tracking surveys that confidence has been below 40%. Numbers that bleak haven’t been recorded in consecutive surveys since the middle of 2007.
Barack Obama’s “Panic Week” has come and gone, but did his White House learn anything from the historic repudiation of his leftist agenda? Putting the question another way, has Obama made the necessary course corrections or is he still refusing to hear the message that America is sending him so loudly and clearly?
I’ll admit it. I love populism. In my youth I was always drawn to populist candidates. For over eight months I’ve been predicting that 2010 would be the Year of the Populist, and this prediction has come true. Populism is the only approach that makes sense in this angry, miserable time full of resentful voters. A sincere populist identifies with, and advocates for, the needs of ordinary powerless people, who believe they are being screwed by big, impersonal institutions and elites.
The race to replace Charlie Crist as governor of Florida still leans Republican with little movement in either direction.
The first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 telephone survey of the Wisconsin governor's race finds the two most prominent Republican contenders both ahead of their likeliest Democratic opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
Is there a patriot in the house? Is there anyone in Washington who regards governing as a means to accomplish anything other than win the sterile game of Democrat versus Republican? Every day, American soldiers risk their lives for their country, but people in Congress won't even risk their jobs to pass legislation essential to the nation's economic future.
Republican Congressman Mark Kirk is well ahead of his closest challenger in the race for the Republican Senate nomination in Illinois. GOP voters will pick their candidate on Tuesday.
Illinois Democrats will chose their Senate nominee on Tuesday, and State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias holds the lead going into the final weekend. But one-out-of four likely primary voters remain undecided.
The number of voters who give Congress a poor job performance rating is now at its highest level in more than three years. More voters also think most members of Congress are corrupt.
Incumbent Republican Charles Grassley – for now at least – is sitting comfortably ahead of his three leading Democratic challengers in the U.S. Senate race in Iowa.
You know it’s a strange new world when Gary Langer, the director of polling at ABC, attacks a Democratic polling firm. By the way, the good folks at Public Policy Polling (PPP) took the attack in stride. The firm's Tom Jensen noted that “one of the most amusing things Langer and others in his cohort claim is that polls should not be judged by their accuracy.”
One of the key new initiatives in President Obama’s State of the Union speech is a three-year freeze on discretionary government spending, but voters overwhelmingly believe the freeze will have little or no impact on the federal deficit.
On the eve of his first State of the Union Address, Barack Obama confided that he would "rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president." But his proposal to freeze domestic spending is exactly the kind of policy that could result in four years of stagnation -- rewarded by an election defeat at the hands of dispirited and disillusioned voters. If he continues to surrender his mandate, he just might become a mediocre one-term president.
For Democrats, it is officially time to worry. The party's gubernatorial losses in Virginia and New Jersey last fall could be partially explained away as the states' usual off-year swing to the "out" party.
Republican Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts' special Senate election was for Democratic leaders a moment that can be described in two words, of which I will only print the first here, which is "oh."
One more Democratic senator who has long been regarded as a safe prospect for reelection may be facing a challenging year in 2010.
During his State of the Union address tonight, President Obama touched on a number of topics that Rasmussen Reports has current polling data on measuring the attitudes of the American people.
