TV News

Poll: Americans Trust Fox News The Most And The Least

David Taintor | January 19, 2012, 2:31PM

Photo from Rena Schild / Shutterstock

For most Americans, Fox News is both the most -- and least -- trusted television news source.

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Polls

PPP: Obama Leads The GOP Field In Colorado

Kyle Leighton | August 11, 2011, 6:00AM

President Obama, then a senator, at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO

The prelude to the 2008 election included months of speculation about how then candidate Obama might redraw the political map--and whether that rehash of the political fault lines would be permanent or temporary. Colorado was very much part of that discussion: a state with changing demographics that has elected both Democrats and Republicans to statewide positions in the past decade.

A new poll from Public Policy Polling (D) shows President Obama hasn't exactly endeared himself to the voters in Colorado, as his approval rating is at 46% against 50% disapproval. But the new survey really exposes a major indicator in the 2012 process: despite being at a low point in the current national polls, the GOP field is so weak that no Republican candidate even gets within the margin of error against the President in the Rocky Mountain state.

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Debt Ceiling

Americans on Debt Ceiling Solution: Just Do It

Kyle Leighton | July 18, 2011, 5:46AM

When it comes to the polling around a debt ceiling deal Americans are clear: they want the government to...you know...fix it.

Even the concept of avoiding default is colored by how public polling questions are asked, and whether a solution is proposed. A recent Pew/Washington Post survey showed that 75% of Americans were concerned that not raising the ceiling would lead to default and hurt the nation's economy. But when Gallup asked whether a voter's congressperson should actually vote to raise the debt ceiling, only 22% said yes, with 42% giving a firm no.

What the government should do to address the situation is somewhat murky, but some trends have appeared. Gallup showed, in a very general question, that 62% favor addressing the debt with either mostly spending cuts or an equal balance of cuts and new revenue. And when it comes to taxes as part of the deal, it depends on how you ask the question.

When Rasmussen simply asked "As part of legislation to raise the debt ceiling, should congress and the president raise taxes?", 55% of Americans, predictably, said no. But when Quinnipiac asked "Do you think any agreement to raise the national debt ceiling should include only spending cuts or should it also include an increase in taxes for the wealthy and corporations?" then 67% said yes, showing a swing when there was a clear definition of whose taxes would actually be raised.

But past any solution to the immediate problem, multiple polls showed that future spending is a major concern. The same Pew/Washington Post poll showed that a plurality of Americans are actually more concerned with the consequences of raising the debt ceiling, i.e. allowing the government borrow more money, rather than the immediate concern about default. The Quinnipiac survey showed a similar result: 43% responded that "raising the debt limit would lead to higher government spending" was a bigger concern than "not raising the debt limit would force the government into default and hurt the nation's economy." Gallup produced the same, with only 32% saying averting disaster was the key component of a debt ceiling deal, and 51% saying raising the ceiling without a plan to cut spending is more worrisome.

So Americans want a deal. And most want a balanced deal with more cuts than new revenues. But the debate has clearly seared an aversion to future spending, and looks as though raising the debt ceiling will never truly be a formality again.

Jon Huntsman

Poll Results In One Jon Huntsman Supporter In Iowa

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 1, 2011, 11:28AM

Jon Huntsman

Despite the amped-up rhetoric and nearly non-stop coverage, Election Day 2012 is still a long way off. There's still plenty of time for candidates to build their base of support and for a darkhorse to emerge in the Republican field to surprise everyone. That said, the stark reality for former Utah governor and recently-departed Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman shown in one new Iowa poll suggests he'd better get on the stick if he wants to play in the first contest of the presidential cycle.

Between May 27-30, Public Policy Polling (D) surveyed 481 Republican voters in Iowa, and only one respondent said Huntsman's his guy. Just one.

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MA-SEN

PPP Poll: GOPer Scott Brown In Good Shape In Heavily Dem Massachusetts

Eric Kleefeld | December 2, 2010, 11:01AM

Senator Scott Brown (R-MA)

A new survey of Massachusetts from Public Policy Polling (D) finds Republican Sen. Scott Brown, who won a tremendous upset victory in last January's special election to succeed the late Democratic icon Ted Kennedy, to be in good shape heading into his 2012 re-election bid.

Brown is in front of a number of hypothetical Democratic opponents. He leads Rep. Mike Capuano, who had previously lost the Democratic primary in that special election, by 52%-36%. Brown leads Rep. Stephen Lynch by 49%-30%, leads Rep. Ed Markey by 49%-39%, and leads Gov. Deval Patrick by 49%-42%. In addition, Brown leads Vicki Kennedy, the widow of Ted Kennedy, by 48%-41%.

Brown's approval rating is 53%, to only 29% disapproval.

From the pollster's analysis: "In a sign of how moderate and mainstream Brown's image is, 53% say his views are "about right," something only 32% say of the GOP as a whole. Likewise, 52% think the Republicans too conservative, but only a third say that of Brown. Even 35% of Democrats see Brown's ideology as acceptable, though half do think him too far right."

Health Care

Poll: Republicans Want Anti-HCR GOPers To Just Say No To Gov't Health Care

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 23, 2010, 2:12PM

Rep.-elect Andy Harris (R-MD)

Republicans and independents have decided that incoming members of Congress who ran against health care reform and still take their government-funded benefits are hypocrites. Democrats, not so much.

That's one conclusion from a new national poll from Democratic firm PPP, which shows big majorities of GOP and independent voters saying the politicians who ran against the health care reform law should forgo the health care benefits they're entitled to as employees of the federal government.

Just 28% of Republican respondents said that new anti-reform members should take their federal benefits, while a whopping 58% said they shouldn't. Among independents -- who voted for the GOP in big numbers on Nov. 2 -- 56% say politicians who made health care repeal a cornerstone of their campaigns should deny themselves their government benefits. Only 27% said they should take them.

The split is much narrower among Democrats, who presumably support the health care law and the idea of government-assisted health care in larger numbers. Forty percent of Democrats said that politicians who ran against the health care law should take their government care anyway, while 46% said they should decline it.

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2010 elections

Closing Fast: How Linda McMahon's Millions Have Made A Real Race In Connecticut

Eric Kleefeld | September 20, 2010, 8:37AM

Linda McMahon

So what exactly is going on in Connecticut, the seat where 30-year incumbent Democrat Chris Dodd is retiring? It was widely believed since Dodd's retirement that this would be an easy hold for Dem state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. But the latest polls show Republican former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon making up ground -- and conventional wisdom has been moving accordingly.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Bringing The Smackdown: Linda McMahon's Campaign For Senate, And Her Colorful Pro-Wrestling Past]

When Dodd announced his retirement back in January, the first survey numbers from Public Policy Polling (D) showed Blumenthal way ahead of McMahon by a margin of 60%-28%, compared to Dodd only tying her at 43%-43%. A Quinnipiac poll taken soon after gave Blumenthal a similar lead of 64%-23%. But now a Quinnipiac poll from last week had McMahon narrowing the gap to just 51%-45%.

The TPM Poll Average currently gives Blumenthal a narrow lead of 50.3%-43.0%. And as the graph below shows, he has been losing support -- and she has been gaining -- each with very even and consistent slopes.

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2010 elections

The Enthusiasm Gap: How Dispassionate Dems And Fired-Up GOPers Are Defining 2010

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 13, 2010, 8:34AM

Here are two words you're going to hear a lot of in the next couple months: voter enthusiasm. Simply put, polls show Republican voters are super-extra-with-sugar-on-top excited to cast their protest votes against President Obama and his socialist cronies this November while Democrats are -- to put it mildly -- a lot less jazzed about casting a vote for the team currently in charge.

The split has come to define the polling of the cycle. Generic ballot polling of registered voters -- that is, everyone who could vote on election day -- has shown the electorate to be essentially split, with half favoring Democratic control of Congress and half welcoming the reign of Speaker Boehner. When likely voters (the group who theoretically will turn out in the end) are asked how they're going to vote, Republicans leap out to a big lead.

For example, in a recent NBC/WSJ poll, the parties were split at 43% support when all adults surveyed were asked who they'd rather see in control of Congress next year. But when likely voters were asked the same question, the GOP took a nine-point lead. Polling from other firms this year has shown a similar result.

"We have two ways of looking at the enthusiasm gap: measuring whether voters are very, somewhat, or not at all excited about voting this fall, and then a step beyond that looking at how they voted for President in 2008," Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen told me when I asked him to explain how screenings of likely voters work. "We're consistently finding that very excited voters are going strongly toward the GOP while somewhat and not at all excited voters are supporting Democrats."

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