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May 27, 2011

On To The Senate, With A Detour In The House By Larry J. Sabato

Right now, first-term Rep. Rick Berg (R-ND) looks likely to be elected to the Senate seat left open by the retirement of Kent Conrad (D) in November 2012. The Crystal Ball wondered: How rare is it for someone to get such a fast elevation from the House to the Senate? (We realize some House members will insist it is a demotion.) We've scoured the records and identified nine members of the Senate in this category. Only senators in office sometime in the previous 50 years were included.

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May 27, 2011

Where Are The Obama Scandals? By Brendan Nyhan

One of the least remarked upon aspects of the Obama presidency has been the lack of scandals. Since Watergate, presidential and executive branch scandal has been an inescapable feature of the American presidency, but the current administration has not yet suffered a major scandal, which I define as a widespread elite perception of wrongdoing. What happened, and what are the odds that the administration's streak will continue?

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May 27, 2011

60% Plan to Honor Memorial Day

Just one-out-of-five American Adults have served in the U.S. military, but most of their fellow citizens plan on doing something special on Memorial Day to honor those who gave their lives for their country.

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May 27, 2011

Will Obama Need To Find His Inner "Wilson"? By Rhodes Cook

Take a poll of political pundits about next year's presidential election, and most at this point would probably predict that President Barack Obama would win reelection, but with a reduced margin from 2008 in both the popular and electoral vote. Yet if that actually happens, it would be an historical rarity of the first order.

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May 26, 2011

38% Plan to Take a Summer Vacation This Year

Summer may be just around the corner, but over half of Americans do not plan on taking any trips this season.

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May 26, 2011

49% Consider Themselves Pro-Choice, 41% Pro-Life

A plurality of voters considers themselves pro-choice on the issue of abortion, but most still consider abortion morally unjust most of the time.

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May 26, 2011

50% Expect U.S. Government To Go Bankrupt Before Budget Is Balanced

Voters clearly aren’t confident that their elected officials will wrestle federal spending under control. In fact, many now think the government’s more likely to go belly up.

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May 26, 2011

Are Voters As Stupid As Insiders Think? By Debra J. Saunders

Do Americans have the will to cut government spending in order to curb the rampant growth in government debt and liabilities? Not if the politicians they send to Washington have anything to do with it.

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May 26, 2011

All Eyes on the Storm By Froma Harrop

In 1954, E.B. White wrote a piece in The New Yorker about a hurricane hitting his part of Maine. The moment it left Boston, he notes in "The Eye of Edna," the radio voices declared the violent storm over -- even as it continued barreling toward the coast of Maine. When the wind "began to tear everything to pieces, what we got on the radio was a man doing a whistling act and somebody playing the glockenspiel."  

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May 26, 2011

GOP Voters Still More Critical of Their Congressmen Than Democrats Are

Republican voters are slightly less critical of the job their representatives in Congress are doing, but most still think the legislators are out of sync with the party base. Democratic voters, by contrast, are not as happy with the performance of their congressmen as they were a year ago.

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May 26, 2011

Obama Skirts Rule of Law to Reward Pals, Punish Enemies By Michael Barone

Question: What do the following have in common? Eckert Cold Storage Co., Kerly Homes of Yuma, Classic Party Rentals, West Coast Turf Inc., Ellenbecker Investment Group Inc., Only in San Francisco, Hotel Nikko, International Pacific Halibut Commission, City of Puyallup, Local 485 Health and Welfare Fund, Chicago Plastering Institute Health & Welfare Fund, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Teamsters Local 522 Fund Welfare Fund Roofers Division, StayWell Saipan Basic Plan, CIGNA, Caribbean Workers' Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Health and Welfare Plan.

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May 25, 2011

29% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

For the third week in a row, 29% 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, May 22. 

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May 25, 2011

46% Rate Obama’s Leadership Style As Good or Excellent

Positive ratings for President Obama’s leadership are at their highest level since January, but one-in-four voters still gives him poor marks in this area.

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May 25, 2011

56% Favor Spending Cap Tied to Population Growth and Inflation

Voters strongly comprehend that government spending has risen over the past decade, and most favor a cap on annual spending increases limited to population growth and inflation.

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May 25, 2011

85% of Americans View Their Marriages Positively

Americans overwhelmingly rate their marriages as good or excellent. Those most recently wed are the most enthusiastic.

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May 25, 2011

Mideast Communications Chaos By Tony Blankley

The president's speech last week, which was described by the White House in advance as a speech intended to reach out to the Muslim world, will probably go down as one of the least well-understood major presidential speeches in modern memory.

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May 24, 2011

Obama 45%, Generic Republican 44%

For the third week in a row, voters remain almost evenly divided over whether they want to reelect President Obama or elect a Republican to replace him.

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May 24, 2011

40% Say Scotty McCreery Will Win 'American Idol'

The 10th season of "American Idol" is about to come to an end this week, and a plurality of viewers think 17-year-old Scotty McCreery should win - and will win - the competition.

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May 24, 2011

63% Say Japanese Earthquake Will Hurt U.S. Economy

Less than two months after Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, Americans remain strongly concerned that the disaster will hurt the U.S. economy, although the number concerned has fallen slightly from last month.

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May 24, 2011

47% See Major Changes in Defense, Social Security, Medicare As Necessary to Big Budget Cuts, 36% Don’t

Most voters know they want to cut government spending in a serious way, but despite the ongoing national budget-cutting debate, they don’t seem to recognize what that’s going to take.

Daily Presidential
Tracking Poll

President Biden's approval numbers posted every weekday

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