Governing Is About Ideology and Competence

This article was co-written by Glen Bolger and Jim Hobart. Gallup recently used the ideology data from their tracking surveys from the first half of 2009 to compiled a list of the most conservative and most liberal states. While there are few surprises in the data (Alabama and Mississippi are the most conservative states, Massachusetts […]

Americans to Obama: Go slower

This article was co-authored by Bill McInturff and Alex Bratty. It may be August, but we’re still here monitoring the public mood as the health care debate picks up steam. The latest news: Americans are paying attention to the health care debate and the message they’re sending to Obama is “go slow!” Our recent NBC […]

Purple Gain: Why Colorado Is a Swing State and What the GOP Can Do About It

For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! Those words, penned by a young woman who had been inspired by the view from the top of Pikes Peak, have never more aptly described Colorado. Purple: you know, the color of royalty, the Northwestern Wildcats, and those most coveted voters we deem up for grabs. Click […]

Americans think health care protests not un-American.

This article was co-written by Glen Bolger and Jim Hobart. As the health care debate moves from the Capitol in D.C. to high school gymnasiums across the country, Democrats still find themselves on the losing end of the message battle and their hopes for creating a government-controlled and taxpayer-funded system continue to dwindle. Two recently […]

Pelosi et al: Dog days of August, or just dog days, period?

As Congress splits town for the August recess, Members return to their districts where Americans are giving them a pretty poor report card. Our late July NBC/WSJ poll* shows the country is pretty unimpressed with Nancy Pelosi and the Congress as a whole. Just one-quarter (24%) approves of the job Congress is doing, and disapproval […]

Republican Resurgence – Part II

In June I wrote about the need for the Republican Party to act on the public’s increasing dissatisfaction over the level of government spending and their concern about the ever-increasing federal deficit. Our latest NBC/WSJ poll* shows this a real and growing opportunity, with the public starting to thaw on the GOP – at least when […]

The Perfect Storm?

Remember this line from The Perfect Storm uttered by Bobby Shatford (Mark Wahlberg)? Skip, what are we gonna do about those numbers? They suck. Kind of captures how The White House may be looking at the recent flurry of negative polls showing the President’s approval rating sinking, the air going out of his health care […]

POS In The News, 8/5/09

The Wall Street Journal quotes Bill McInturff in an article on how Americans feel about health care reform. “Health care is intensely personal,” says Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster who co-directs the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll and has long studied attitudes about health care. “It’s not like welfare. It’s about me.” Politico published an […]

The honeymoon is over. Political gravity brings Obama back down to earth.

Since January many people have asked me and my colleagues at Public Opinion Strategies when President Obama’s honeymoon period will be over. As pollsters we can’t predict the future and read tea-leaves, but we can read current data. The answer is, it’s happening right now. Our latest NBC/WSJ poll* shows President Obama’s ratings dropping across […]

“Man and Wife. Say Man and Wife.”

Marriage.  Marriage is what brings us together today.  Most of the analyses looking at politics today focus on either the gender gap, or the generation gap, or the huge differences between base partisans.  However, one of the more enduring and important gaps is the marriage/single gap. The 2008 exit polls showed the gap.  The 66{09f965da52dc6ab4c1643a77bd40d1f729d807040cd8db540234bb981a782222} […]

Public Opinion Strategies