What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending November 25, 2017

What are you thankful for?

Stock market indices hit new highs this week. With the unemployment rate down now to 4.1%, the lowest level since 2000, confidence in the job market has risen to a new high.

With much to be thankful for, the overwhelming majority of Americans said they would again be expressing gratitude around the Thanksgiving table.

However, while Thanksgiving is one of the busiest times of the year for travelers, only one-in-five Americans planned to spend this Thanksgiving away from home.

Despite the hoopla surrounding Black Friday, most Americans continue to say they will not partake in one of the biggest days of the year for shopping deals.

Still, many Americans are jumping the gun on holiday shopping this year, with nearly half saying they already started even before Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals hit.

Of course, with spending comes taxes. Republican leaders in Congress aim to pass tax reform legislation by the year’s end, and most voters and even nearly half of Democrats think it important that tax reform happens.

Congress faces other challenges, as well.  The sexual abuse scandal news that started in Hollywood has this week climbed the steps of the nation’s capital where the sexual transgression spotlight has shifted from Senator Al Franken to Representative John Conyers as the House Ethics Committee Tuesday opened an investigation into allegations women have made against him.

As it is, most voters — even fellow Democrats by a 45% to 37% margin — say it’s time for Senator Al Franken to go if his accusers are right.

But thinking ahead to next year’s midterm elections, voters are leaning towards returning the Democrats to control of the entire Congress for the first time since early 2011.

In other surveys last week:

-- As Joe Biden travels the country to promote his new book, voters—especially Democrats—have renewed enthusiasm about the possibility of a 2020 presidential run for the former vice president, even though he has not yet committed to entering the race.

-- President Trump changed the rules of engagement in the War on Terror and within months U.S.-backed forces captured Mosul, the largest city held by the Islamic State in Syria, then last month captured the Syrian city of Raqqa, what had been the de facto capital of the self-styled Islamic caliphate. That the Trump Doctrine of crushing terror with unrelenting force could be working is the subject of this week’s Rasmussen Minute.

Visit the Rasmussen Reports home page for the latest current polling coverage of events in the news. The page is updated several times each day.

Remember, if it's in the news, it's in our polls.