polls

Chris Cillizza delves into the internals of the Washington Post poll that has support for a “public option” in health care ticking back up. It’s lousy for Republicans. Only 19 percent of Americans trust the GOP to make the right decisions, and just 37 percent want Congress to pass a bill with Republican support if [...]

The polling wars on immigration reform have officially begun. Today, the Center for Immigration Studies, which aims to restrict immigration to the United States and deport those who are here illegally, sent around the findings of a recent Zogby poll which finds that — surprise! — a majority of Mexicans say they think their friends [...]

Reading The Washington Post’s write-up of Adm. Mullen’s call for a second U.S. troop deployment in Afghanistan this year, this poll figure stands out: the country is about split on the strategic importance of the war.

There was a minor hue and cry on the conservative blogs about 10 days ago, when the Pollster.com average showed President Obama’s approval rating dropping into the negative zone for the first time. Today, he’s back up to 53.5 percent approval and 43.7 percent disapproval. On the graph, this registers as a steady upward bounce.

Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling sent out some explanatory tweets last night about a coming survey of South Carolina voters, asking them what they thought of Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-S.C.) “You lie!” outburst.
“After 145 interviews 66 say Wilson calling Obama liar makes them more likely to vote for him,” wrote Jensen. “59 say less [...]

When it comes to health care, at least, following the polls can be tricky.
Take this latest one Sam Stein reports on for The Huffington Post, showing that 77 percent of Americans think it’s important to have a “choice” between government-run health insurance and private coverage.  That poll comes from Survey USA. Meanwhile, Rasmussen Reports  found [...]

Just when the Republican Party is skidding along to its lowest level of power since the 1970s, here comes Scott Rasmussen, the only pollster who matters:
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 41 percent would vote for their district’s Republican candidate while 38 percent would choose the Democrat. Thirty-one percent of conservative Democrats [...]

It’s got to be “Barack’s in the basement” from The Washington Times, which argues that “at the 100-day mark of his presidency, Mr. Obama is the second-least-popular president in 40 years.”
The only new president less popular was Bill Clinton, who got off to a notoriously bad start after trying to force homosexuals on the military [...]

Stacy McCain reports on a new Zogby poll that, according to John Zogby, puts the president’s approval rating at “about 50-50.”
This has got to scare Democrats to death, because the whole point of hitching their wagons to Obama’s star was that Obama was popular.
Alternatively, Democrats might yawn and say two things.

Via Eric Kleefeld, a new CNN poll shows President Obama’s plan to end the war in 2011 to be astoundingly popular: 70 percent approve and 29 percent don’t. It’s hard to remember that this issue was once the most controversial in American politics.
As Eric notes, the poll doesn’t (so far) break down why the 29 [...]