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, 2011

The Trouble With Trump By Joe Conason

Everything we really need to know about the character of Donald Trump was revealed when the wannabe president frivolously accused Barack Obama's late grandparents of committing fraud with his birth announcement. Trump told CNN that they had placed the Aug. 13, 1961, announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser because they wanted to get "welfare" and other benefits. But this casual falsehood revealed only the tiniest hint of the truth about Trump that Americans will discover if he actually runs for the White House.

White letter R on blue background
April 22, 2011

The Map: The Crystal Ball's First 2011 Take on 2012's Electoral College By Larry J. Sabato and the Crystal Ball Team

With 18 months to go until November 2012, there is exactly one use for a current projection of the 2012 Electoral College results. This is merely a baseline from which we can judge more reliable projections made closer to the election. Where did we start--before we knew the identity of the Republican nominee for president, the state of the economy in fall 2012 and many other critical facts?

White letter R on blue background
April 22, 2011

South By Southwest By Kyle Kondik

The classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller "North by Northwest" contains a few of Hollywood's most memorable--and ludicrous--sequences, including a famous scene in which our hero, played by Cary Grant, finds himself being shot at by a crop duster at a bus stop near a cornfield.

White letter R on blue background
April 21, 2011

Curbing Medicare Costs Without Vouchers By Froma Harrop

About 10 years ago, a new radiation treatment for prostate cancer came on line. A single course of "intensity-modulated radiation therapy" cost Medicare about $42,000. The older radiation therapy cost $10,000. Hospitals bought the new machines and stopped using the traditional method. This tacked another $1.5 billion per year to Medicare spending on prostate cancer alone.

White letter R on blue background
April 21, 2011

No Poking President at Facebook By Debra J. Saunders

Last year, when President Obama wanted to convince Americans that his policies were paying off and creating jobs, he visited a solar-panel plant in Fremont, Calif. "The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra," quoth the president.

White letter R on blue background
April 21, 2011

Mr. Obama: Taxing the Rich Won't Increase Revenues By Michael Barone

Did Barack Obama take Tax 1 in law school? I did, and I remember the first day of classes, when mild mannered Professor Boris Bittker asked a simple question, "What is income?"

White letter R on blue background
April 20, 2011

The Republican Dwarfs By Susan Estrich

I must admit that it took me at least a minute to figure out the Drudge Report headline: "Paw In."

White letter R on blue background
April 20, 2011

Governing While Drunk on Partisanship By Tony Blankley

If future historians look back on the ruins of the American economy after a U.S. bond crisis struck in the second decade of the 21st century, many causes will be noted. Obviously, it will be seen that for decades before the catastrophe, the U.S. was spending vastly more than it could afford on government health and retirement programs. 

White letter R on blue background
April 19, 2011

The War on Users of Cold, Allergy Drugs By Debra J. Saunders

You know the war on drugs has gone too far when politicians keep ratcheting up restrictions on cold and allergy medications in order to prevent kitchen drug labs from buying pills and converting them into methamphetamine.

White letter R on blue background
April 19, 2011

America Is Not a Third World Country ... Yet By Froma Harrop

Let's start with the assumption that America is not a Third World country. In poor countries, many people never see doctors. Only the elite go to college. Rattletrap trains take two hours to go 70 miles.

White letter R on blue background
April 18, 2011

President Whatever Finds Things Not Going His Way By Michael Barone

Barack Obama is a politician who likes to follow through on long-term strategies and avoid making course corrections. That's how he believes he won in 2008, and since then he's shown that he's not much into details.

White letter R on blue background
April 17, 2011

Department of Obstruction of Justice By Debra J. Saunders

President Obama well may have begun another undeclared war -- this time on states that try to enforce their own death penalty laws -- on the dubious grounds that the Food and Drug Administration has not approved drugs intended to kill convicted killers.

White letter R on blue background
April 16, 2011

Days of Disappointment By Susan Estrich

It's that time of year again, the time of year when high school seniors who have done everything right their whole lives discover that it wasn't good enough to get them into the colleges they dreamed of attending. Ditto for college seniors applying to graduate school.

White letter R on blue background
April 16, 2011

Democrats Can Win the Budget Debate By Joe Conason

Having hesitated to fully enter the fiscal fray, President Obama has at last delivered a plausible, principled response to the budgetary flim-flams of the far right. But one speech, even a very good speech, won't fulfill his obligation in this fateful argument.

White letter R on blue background
April 15, 2011

Why Democrats Could Take Back The House in 2012 By Alan I. Abramowitz

Between 1932 and 1994, Democrats controlled the U.S. House of Representatives for 58 of 62 years. Since then, however, party control has changed three times, with Republicans controlling the House from 1995 through 2006, Democrats from 2007 through 2010, and Republicans since then.

White letter R on blue background
April 15, 2011

Why the GOP Could Keep the House in 2012 By Glen Bolger and Jim Hobart

If Barack Obama’s political standing is helped by a slowly recovering economy, talk among Democrats will quickly turn to taking back the House. However, control of the House of Representatives after the 2012 elections will still belong to the Republicans.

White letter R on blue background
April 15, 2011

New Media Catches Obama Bribing the Fourth Estate By Howard Rich

For years, America’s left-leaning mainstream media outlets have belittled and rebuked members of the new media — questioning their credibility, impugning their integrity and assigning all manner of self-serving motivations to their contributions to the marketplace of ideas.

White letter R on blue background
April 14, 2011

When Politicians 'Bicker,' They're Really Negotiating By Michael Barone

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank attracted some attention when he promised not to mention Sarah Palin for a month. He kept his promise. The republic and the Post survived.

White letter R on blue background
April 14, 2011

Romney and Obama -- Bipartisan Brothers By Debra J. Saunders

Mitt Romney is too much like Barack Obama. I don't see how he'd win the 2012 GOP nod because he's got too much in common with the guy he wants to replace. 

White letter R on blue background
April 14, 2011

Tax and Debt Bomb By Lawrence Kudlow

We thought tax reform meant lowering rates and broadening the base by eliminating or cutting back on various deductions, credits and loopholes. That's what the Bowles-Simpson commission proposed. That's what Paul Ryan and David Camp are working on. And that's the pro-growth model.

Daily Presidential
Tracking Poll

President Biden's approval numbers posted every weekday

Top Stories

  1. Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
  2. Biden Approval Declines Again in June
  3. Happy Independence Day!
  4. ABC News: 'Answer Our Questions -- Or Else!'