If it's in the News, it's in our Polls. Public opinion polling since 2003.

Political Commentary

Most Recent Releases

White letter R on blue background
April 22, 2009

Greatly Depressing By Howard Rich

History is written by many people, but those who write government school textbooks tend to hold disproportionate sway.

White letter R on blue background
April 22, 2009

The Hundred Days By Susan Estrich

Watch out. Everywhere you look, the talking heads are going to be talking about Barack Obama's first hundred days.

White letter R on blue background
April 21, 2009

GOP Heads on Sticks By Debra J. Saunders

Republican politicians are afraid of their base. Very afraid. Press folks have categorized the April 15 TEA parties -- TEA for "Taxed Enough Already" -- as anti-President Barack Obama, anti-government and even "anti-CNN." But it is GOP leaders who are scared senseless (for want of a better word) by the protests.

White letter R on blue background
April 21, 2009

Bottom Line for the Already Insured By Froma Harrop

The hardest group to sell on national health reform is those who don't desperately need it.

White letter R on blue background
April 21, 2009

Back to the Future: Obama's Foreign Policy By Michael Barone

As Barack Obama finishes up his second major foreign tour, a pattern in his approach to foreign policy seems to be emerging.

White letter R on blue background
April 19, 2009

Left Coast Tea Party By Debra J. Saunders

Last Wednesday, conservatives held coast-to-coast "TEA parties" designed to send the message to Washington and state governments that the partiers feel "taxed enough already." The exercise struck me as more than a little out of touch with the political realities of President Barack Obama's

White letter R on blue background
April 17, 2009

Political Talk By Susan Estrich

Listen to Texas Gov. Rick Perry. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that."

White letter R on blue background
April 17, 2009

Independent Voters and the President: Myths and Realities By Alan Abramowitz

The importance of partisanship in contemporary American politics is widely recognized. Among the public as well as political leaders, party divisions run deep and it is increasingly clear that the arrival of a new President in Washington has done little to change that fundamental reality.

White letter R on blue background
April 17, 2009

Obama and the Redefinition of Presidential Coattails By Rhodes Cook

Barack Obama showed considerable vote-getting ability in last fall's presidential election, with a clear-cut win in both popular and electoral votes. But when it came to presidential coattails, his were of the same modest length of many of his immediate predecessors.

White letter R on blue background
April 16, 2009

A State-ly March Toward Gay Marriage By Froma Harrop

This has been a month of forward leaps in the campaign for gay-marriage -- or so it is said. The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a ban on same-sex marriage, providing a toehold in the heartland.

White letter R on blue background
April 16, 2009

On Climate and Health, Beware of Easy Formulas By Michael Barone

Beware of geeks bearing formulas. That's the lesson most of us have learned from the financial crisis. The "quants" who devised the risk models that induced so many financial institutions to buy mortgage-backed securities thought they had reduced risk down to zero.

White letter R on blue background
April 16, 2009

TARP the Life Insurers? This Is Nuts By Lawrence Kudlow

Is bailout nation about to strike again? Sure looks like it. According to a bunch of front-page news stories, life-insurance companies are about to get TARPed. This is nuts.

White letter R on blue background
April 16, 2009

Homeland Insecurity By Debra J. Saunders

On April 7, the Department of Homeland Security distributed a counterterrorism assessment to local law-enforcement types entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." The nine-page paper has many on the right questioning what is going on in Washington.

White letter R on blue background
April 16, 2009

Obama's Cup of Tea By Joe Conason

If conservative leaders no longer even try to offer serious solutions to national problems, nobody should underestimate their capacity or their will to mobilize angry Americans.

White letter R on blue background
April 15, 2009

A Nuclear Talibanistan? By Tony Blankley

Our view of Pakistan's role in the war in Afghanistan has undergone an ominous but necessary series of shifts. At the outset of the war, in October 2001, Pakistan correctly was seen as a necessary ally -- both politically and geographically -- as it was the primary conduit for our entry and lines of communication into Afghanistan.

White letter R on blue background
April 15, 2009

Bailing Out The Taxpayers For A Change By Howard Rich

Sometimes it’s important to try and fathom the unfathomable. For example, why is “thirteen” considered an unlucky number? Why do pigs continue to fly in Washington D.C.

White letter R on blue background
April 15, 2009

The Second Time Around By Susan Estrich

"I can't say that I know her," the forewoman of Phil Spector's jury told the press after it was over, referring to Spector's victim, Lana Clarkson. Both Clarkson and Spector were on trial for the second time, after the first jury to consider murder charges against the music producer deadlocked 10-2 in favor of conviction.

White letter R on blue background
April 14, 2009

Economic Anxiety: Like Rats in a Cage By Froma Harrop

One day last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 246 points. On CNBC, Jim Cramer punched the Sousa March button. NPR's "Marketplace" boomed, "We're in the Money."

White letter R on blue background
April 14, 2009

Some Get the Tea, Others Get the Bag By Debra J. Saunders

In December 1773, Bostonians held a Tea Party in Boston Harbor to protest excessive British taxes. "No taxation without representation" was their message.

White letter R on blue background
April 12, 2009

Who Wants To Free Mumia Now? By Debra J. Saunders

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal seeking a new trial for death-row inmate and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted in the 1981 shooting of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.