What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending May 9, 2015
As the Rolling Stones once told us, you can’t always get what you want. Voters know exactly what that means.
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May 9, 2015
May 8, 2015
Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 38%, Democrats 38%
Republicans and Democrats are now tied on the latest Generic Congressional Ballot.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey for the week ending May 7 finds that 38% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for the Republican candidate in their district's congressional race if the election were held today, while another 38% would choose the Democrat instead. Twenty-four percent (24%) prefer a third-party candidate or are undecided.
May 8, 2015
Moms Will Feel The Love This Sunday
Americans place slightly more importance on Mother’s Day and the role of motherhood in general this year.
May 8, 2015
Voters Give Huckabee Best Shot at Nomination of This Week’s GOP Newcomers
Republicans think Mike Huckabee has the best chance of getting the GOP presidential nomination of the three new contenders in the race this week, but then he’s the best-known of the trio.
May 8, 2015
Why Americans Oppose Economic Redistribution Despite Income Inequality by Michael Barone
Skeptics about democracy in the 18th and 19th centuries argued that the enfranchised masses would use their votes to seize the property of the relatively few rich. What could be more natural?
May 8, 2015
When is More Defense Spending Enough?
Congress and the president are battling over a federal budget that spends more on the military, but voters are less gung-ho about increasing defense spending than they were three months ago. Still, support for more spending on defense remains higher than it has been in several years.
May 7, 2015
Americans Are Less Stressed Out Over the Economy
Some say you’re not supposed to discuss money or politics at the dinner table. Could that be for good reason?
May 7, 2015
Getting the Sports Moguls off Our Backs By Froma Harrop
It was not out of a sense of decency that the National Football League recently let go of its tax-exempt status. You see, as a tax-exempt organization, the NFL had to disclose Commissioner Roger Goodell's compensation -- $44.2 million in 2012. That seemed an excessive sum for the head of a "nonprofit" freed from having to pay any federal income tax. Now the NFL can keep it secret.
May 7, 2015
Note to 2016 Hopefuls: Don't Call Yourself a Socialist or Career Politician
The 2016 presidential race has its first self-described socialist candidate now that longtime Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is running for the Democratic nomination, but most voters see this political label as toxic.
May 7, 2015
The Map: 11 Angles on the Electoral College By Geoffrey Skelley, Kyle Kondik, and Larry J. Sabato
Earlier this week, we debuted our initial Crystal Ball Electoral College ratings in Politico Magazine. We’ve reprinted that column below for those who did not see it. As promised, we have elaborated on the map and our reasoning for the initial judgments.
May 7, 2015
Americans Still Believe in National Day of Prayer
Today is the National Day of Prayer, a 63-year-old tradition that most Americans continue to honor.
May 6, 2015
Voters Like Their Own Congressmen More
Congress’s ratings are still nothing to celebrate, but voters have a slightly more favorable opinion of their local representative.
May 6, 2015
Americans See Bigger Domestic Terror Threat
Following the abortive terrorist attack in Texas this weekend, most Americans agree that Islamic terrorism is now a bigger threat inside the United States.
May 6, 2015
Hillary's Armor By John Stossel
"This vast right-wing conspiracy," Hillary Clinton said, "has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced." That was the "feminist" first lady's response when her husband was accused of having sex with a 21-year-old.
May 6, 2015
A Tale of Two Pollsters
The New York Times reports in their latest poll released late yesterday that Americans don’t care about Hillary Clinton’s e-mail and Clinton Foundation problems. They conclude that the former secretary of State and putative Democratic presidential nominee in 2016 has weathered the storm so far.
For Democrats, it’s always advantageous when pollsters turn to Americans in general or even registered voters rather than Likely Voters like those we routinely survey here at Rasmussen Reports. It’s true that Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they intend to vote which helps explain why Democrats are always championing schemes like same-day voter registration, mail-in voting and the like to get their voters to the polls. But, historically, we’ve also found that polling likely voters gets us closer to the actual end result than surveying Americans as a whole.
May 6, 2015
America's A Very Rude Nation
American adults still believe strongly their fellow citizens could use some manners.
May 5, 2015
Voters Strongly Favor Body Cameras for Cops
Voters overwhelmingly favor requiring cops to wear uniform cameras, but will it make us all safer?
May 5, 2015
Clinton Defenders Advance an Unpersuasive Argument By Michael Barone
Some of Hillary Clinton's defenders have taken to saying that voters shouldn't pay attention to the latest Clinton scandals -- the gushing of often undisclosed millions to the Clintons and their organizations by characters seeking official favors -- because the charges are just one more in a long series: Whitewater, the Rose law firm billing records, the Buddhist temple fundraising, the Lippo Group.
May 5, 2015
Will Bernie Sanders Be the Democratic Nominee in 2016?
Bernie Sanders has some work to do if he wants to be the next Democratic nominee for president of the United States.
May 5, 2015
Let the States Make Drug Law By Froma Harrop
Howard Wooldridge, a Washington lobbyist, is a former detective and forever Texan on an important mission -- trying to persuade the 535 members of Congress to end the federal war on marijuana.
Liberals tend to be an easier sell than conservatives. With liberals, Wooldridge dwells on the grossly racist way the war on drugs has been prosecuted.
