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
June 5, 2009

Supremely Representative: Should the Nation's Highest Court Look Like America? By Barbara A. Perry

The U.S. Constitution is utterly silent on qualifications for members of the federal judiciary. Theoretically, a justice does not even have to be a lawyer, but, in practice, all 110 justices in the Supreme Court's 220-year history have been attorneys. With no constitutionally mandated selection criteria, presidents have been free to determine the standards by which they choose nominees. Professor Henry Abraham, the nation's leading Supreme Court expert, has identified four primary selection criteria that presidents have used in the appointment process: 1) merit, 2) ideology, 3) friendship, and 4) representation.

White letter R on blue background
June 5, 2009

Why Do We Talk About Judges This Way? By Dahlia Lithwick

Nobody in America believes the judicial confirmation system works. Not the senators who eat up precious questioning time with windy speeches about pet projects back home; not the interest groups who scour every sordid instant of a nominee's background for evidence that they are unfit for the bench; and not the American public, whose experiences of constitutional interpretation and judicial philosophy are reduced in a few days on C-SPAN to bumper-sticker claims and counter claims.

White letter R on blue background
June 5, 2009

Advancing Civil Rights By Overturning Old Laws By Michael Barone

Two cases likely to be decided this month by the Supreme Court -- one of them an appeal in a Connecticut case decided by a panel including Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor -- could result in significant changes in our civil rights laws.

White letter R on blue background
June 4, 2009

Headcount Follies By Debra J. Saunders

If you see the federal government as a benign force that seeks only to make your life better, then the questions in the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey may not bother you. But if you have a smidgen of doubt, or if you value your privacy, you probably aren't going to like some of Uncle Sam's invasive queries.

White letter R on blue background
June 4, 2009

Domestic Terrorism by Any Standard By Joe Conason

If right-wing broadcasters don't want to be blamed when someone murders a person they have demonized repeatedly -- as in the case of George Tiller, the doctor shot dead in his Wichita, Kan., church last Sunday by an anti-abortion zealot -- then they ought to moderate their rhetoric. No doubt they will choose their words more carefully for a while, and they will whine piteously about anyone who calls attention to their screaming extremism.

White letter R on blue background
June 4, 2009

Motown Wonders: Where Did Our Love Go? By Froma Harrop

The alternative to a government rescue of General Motors is the collapse of the industrial Midwest. Nonetheless, there's been a surprisingly large amount of dumping on the Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan. The government-sponsored deal seems to have stirred up resentments for every ideology.

White letter R on blue background
June 3, 2009

What's Keeping Obama Up? By Dick Morris

The Rasmussen poll conducted over the weekend of May 30-31 asked a key question designed to give us perspective on Obama's current popularity.

White letter R on blue background
June 3, 2009

It's Not About Ideology By Susan Estrich

"What I have no interest in doing is running GM," President Barack Obama said on Monday, as he assumed ownership of the beacon of free enterprise.

White letter R on blue background
June 3, 2009

Death by Deficit By Tony Blankley

The Roman historian Livy famously described the terminal plight of the late Roman Republic: "Nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus"
("We can bear neither our shortcomings nor the remedies for them"). As I reread this phrase in Christian Meier's biography of Julius Caesar this past
weekend, I couldn't help thinking of America's current fiscal profligacy -- which has been growing for years at an ever-accelerating rate.

White letter R on blue background
June 3, 2009

The Inevitability of Parental Choice By Howard Rich

A year ago, the nation’s largest newspaper wrote in an editorial that it was time to “move beyond vouchers” in the debate over America’s educational future.

White letter R on blue background
June 2, 2009

Yesterday’s Story By Lawrence Kudlow

Isn’t it fascinating that stocks rallied over 200 points on Monday, despite Obama’s command-and-control government takeover of General Motors? I think it’s because GM’s old-economy operation is yesterday’s story.

White letter R on blue background
June 2, 2009

Murder in Wichita By Debra J. Saunders

If law enforcement officials believe they can prove that Scott Roeder is guilty of Sunday's shooting death of abortion doctor George Tiller at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kan., then they should work to put him away for life. Roeder is being held on first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault.

White letter R on blue background
June 2, 2009

Toad Hall Madness Fades, but Sadness Lingers By Froma Harrop

The most notable downsizing of the American home has been in its price. The luxury end usually escapes the worst of housing downturns, but not this time. For those seeking a reprieve from teardown mania, this is not a bad development. I refer to the trend whereby bungalows, Cape Cods and other assorted gracious homes are flattened and replaced by monster mansions. Perhaps the forces of sanity can regroup.

White letter R on blue background
June 1, 2009

GOP Should Run Against the Power of the Center By Michael Barone

Move to the center. That's the advice Republicans are getting from quarters friendly and otherwise. It seems to make a certain amount of sense. If opinion is arrayed along a single-dimension, left-to-right spectrum and clustered in the middle in a bell-curve pattern, then a party on the right needs only to move a few steps toward the center or just beyond to convert itself from minority to majority status.

White letter R on blue background
May 30, 2009

Little Green Cars By Lawrence Kudlow

Get ready, folks: America is about to buy a car company. As of Monday, we the taxpayers will own more than 70 percent of GM. Whether the company will be formally renamed Government Motors remains to be seen. But that's what it will be.

White letter R on blue background
May 29, 2009

Will Sotomayor's Style Blunt Her Liberal Views? By Michael Barone

Barack Obama has named his nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. What's the likely fallout, politically and judicially?

White letter R on blue background
May 29, 2009

For GOP's Sake, Texas Better Not Secede By Rhodes Cook

Of all the jaw-dropping comments made by politicians this year, the one that takes top prize was not uttered in the nation's capital but deep in the heart of Texas. There, in conjunction with a tax day "tea party," Republican Gov. Rick Perry floated the idea of his huge state along the Mexican border seceding from the Union.

White letter R on blue background
May 29, 2009

Making Law By Susan Estrich

Don't tell anyone: This is the season when lawyers left and right cross our fingers behind our backs and solemnly swear that judges don't make law. Conservatives insist they adhere to original intent.

White letter R on blue background
May 28, 2009

Sotomayor and Condescending Identity Politics By Froma Harrop

Identity politics are not good for the country or for the groups they purport to advance. This is not to undercut Sonia Sotomayor, who, as the news reports all start out, is the first Hispanic nominated to the Supreme Court and, if confirmed, would be the third female justice. From what we know about her so far, she seems qualified for the job.

White letter R on blue background
May 28, 2009

Empathy and Impartiality By Debra J. Saunders

How will the GOP react to President Obama's pick to replace Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court? Who cares? It doesn't matter what Senate Republicans think of Sonia Sotomayor.

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!'