Public Opinion Strategies

Last month, 58.6% of working-age Americans were actually working. It must be good times for working folks, right? Guess again: the percentage of working-age Americans actually working has held stagnant since October of ‘09 when it dropped out of the 60% range just a couple of months after President Obama was sworn in the first [...] Read more

With the recent bombing in Boston, terrorism has returned to the forefront of American minds.  But did the horror of last month’s attack have the effect of making Americans more worried about becoming a victim of terrorism themselves?  Fortunately, there is historical data available to answer that question.  Many thanks to the public opinion archives [...] Read more

With all the bipartisan hooplah over the opening of President George W. Bush’s library, there are two lines President Obama hopes NEVER cross: his and President Bush’s respective images. The latest NBC News/Wall St. Journal polling shows President Bush’s rehabilitation has a ways to go before it renders obsolete the “mess I inherited” language that [...] Read more

For many Hispanics born early enough to remember, Ronald Reagan provides some of their earliest – and most positive – memories of “Republican.” Our groups asked participants to search the recesses of their memories and for many, the imprint of Ronald Reagan is one of their earliest and strongest memories. Words or phrases they use to describe Reagan include: “family values,” “real connection to people,” “he had cojones,” “he didn’t mess around” and “was respected by the world.” Even those too young to remember have a similar sense from their conversations with family or study of the Reagan era. Read more

“2000 Man” was penned by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and covered by the glam-band KISS. The ‘67 album “Their Satanic Majesties Request” was one that even the most die-hard Stones fan can probably live without, being one of their lamer efforts. But, these two guys were way ahead of their time: “Well, my name is [...] Read more

As Obamacare turns three years old this week, we thought it would be interesting to go through recent research and look at key data regarding the issue. Click here to read more. Read more

Well, that didn’t take long. Just four months after his solid re-election win, and just two months after his very partisan inaugural speech, Barack Obama’s standing with the American people has taken a significant hit.  With a few exceptions such as Hollywood, Manhattan, and most of the nation’s media, the man hailed in January as [...] Read more

One terrific part about the NBC/WSJ survey is the opportunity to compare attitudes over a long time horizon. We recently repeated a simple question that was asked roughly thirty years ago: “Do you believe athletes are good role models for children?” In 1982, there was essential public consensus, 75% said “yes” that athletes were a [...] Read more

For three weeks, the president has been detailing the disaster that would come with sequestration, with an endless parade of photo-ops and cabinet secretaries. If you doubt the White House’s full-fledged doom-and-gloom, shame-and-blame offensive, google “Obama” and “sequester:” more than 627 MILLION hits! The markets didn’t buy it – and that matters. Most surveys show [...] Read more

It is clear a traditional Likely Voter Model based only on self-described interest and self-described likelihood to vote missed the scope of the turnout of 18-29 year olds and Latinos in 2012. With what we know now, it is important to look again at the survey research completed in 2012. We need to understand what [...] Read more