The Value of the "Obama Effect" By Joe Conason
As approval ratings for Barack Obama decline at home, world opinion of the United States is rising steadily under his stewardship.
As approval ratings for Barack Obama decline at home, world opinion of the United States is rising steadily under his stewardship.
If Florida Governor Charlie Crist leaves the Republican Party and enters the U.S. Senate race as an independent candidate, he will begin the campaign in second place.
Almost a year ago, in a Washington Examiner column on the Chrysler bailout, I reflected on the Obama administration's decision to force bondholders to accept 33 cents on the dollar on secured debts while giving United Auto Worker retirees 50 cents on the dollar on unsecured debts.
Following former Governor Tommy Thompson's decision not to challenge him, Democratic incumbent Russ Feingold leads his three top Republican opponents and falls just below 50% support in his bid for reelection to the U.S. Senate from Wisconsin.
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was officially suspended for six games on Wednesday for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, and a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state of Pennsylvania shows that voters aren’t too fond of the Steelers’ leader.
Thirty-three percent (33%) of U.S. voters say the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Texas may have roughly one-fourth of the nation's oil supply, but voters in the state apparently welcome the competition: 77% support offshore oil drilling, five points higher than the 72% who support it nationwide.
Following last weekend’s Democratic Convention in California, the party’s newly nominated gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown has gained little ground, but support for his top Republican opponent, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, has fallen off slightly.
The Colorado State Board of Education last week voted unanimously in support of a proposed teacher-tenure reform bill now working its way through the state legislature. The bill “would change the way teachers are evaluated and allow teachers to be stripped of their tenure if they fail to meet performance standards heavily weighted by student academic growth data.”
The federal Securities and Exchange Commission is suing Wall Street mega-firm Goldman Sachs for fraud, and most Americans are pretty convinced they’re guilty. But Americans are evenly divided about whether the timing of the suit was based upon concerns about fraud or a desire to help the Obama administration politically.
The Arizona legislature has now passed the toughest measure against illegal immigration in the country, authorizing local police to stop and check the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally.
Over the weekend, Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony joined in on the attack against the new law passed by the Arizona legislature to expand police powers to arrest and deport illegal immigrants. The law basically makes it a crime to be an undocumented alien. If that doesn't sound like an inherently controversial proposition, believe me, it will by the time it gets to court.
Republican Richard Burr continues to earn at least 50% support from North Carolina voters in his reelection bid for the U.S. Senate.
Likely Democratic candidate Terry Goddard now trails two potential Republican opponents in the latest look at Arizona’s gubernatorial contest.
Former President Bill Clinton last week inadvertently demonstrated Karl Marx's shrewd observation, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." The historical event in question is the attempt to deter by smearing a broad-based, popular, American anti-high-tax, anti-big-central government movement as likely to induce seditious violence against the government.
Texas is now one of a number of states suing the federal government to stop the recently-passed national health care plan, arguing that at least one portion of it is unconstitutional.
Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, who surprised many in January when he announced he would not seek reelection this year, remains unpopular in the Centennial State.
Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Americans now believe there is a significant disagreement within the scientific community over global warming, up seven points from early December just after the so-called “Climategate” scandal involving doctored or deliberately undisclosed scientific evidence first broke.
Voters remain concerned about Social Security and whether the system can deliver what the government has promised.
Florida’s gubernatorial race may have grown a bit more competitive this month. State Attorney General Bill McCollum now attracts support for 45% of voters statewide, while Democrat Alex Sink earns the vote from 38%.