Author: Scott Rasmussen

In Washington, many are celebrating the deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. Some, like The Washington Post, are hailing the “strong bipartisan votes (on) a big, contentious issue.” Outside of Washington, however, the reviews aren’t nearly as strong. Forty-six percent of voters nationwide approve of the deal, while the identical number disapprove. And the […]

President Obama and congressional Democrats are still winning the messaging battle in the debate over the impending “fiscal cliff.” Republican House Speaker John Boehner tried to change that with a fallback position extending tax cuts for everyone except those making more than a million dollars a year and letting the scheduled spending cuts go through. […]

Having survived the Supreme Court and the November elections, President Obama’s health care law now faces an even bigger hurdle: the reality of making it work. Implementation of any massive new program requires cooperation, something the health care law can’t count on. Overall, just 46 percent of voters nationwide have a favorable opinion of the […]

President Obama is winning the messaging wars in the “fiscal cliff” debate largely because Republicans aren’t even in the game. The GOP leadership in Washington keeps talking as if the issue is deficit reduction, while the president is talking about fairness. Consider the numbers. Sixty-one percent of voters want to see a deal reached to […]

One little noticed and quite remarkable aspect of Election 2012 is that Barack Obama won a majority of the popular vote for the second consecutive time. With the exception of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four-term run in the 1930s and ’40s, it’s the first time the Democrats have won a majority of the presidential vote in […]

The Republican Party has won a majority of the popular vote just once in the last six elections. That dismal track record followed a party revival in the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan led the GOP to three straight popular vote majorities. To understand what went wrong, it’s important to remember Reagan was an insurgent candidate […]

More than 40 years ago, the federal government launched a war on drugs. Over the past decade, the nation has spent hundreds of billions of dollars fighting that war, a figure that does not even include the high costs of prosecuting and jailing drug law offenders. It’s hard to put a price on that aspect […]

One of the strangest aspects of Election 2012 is that voters are demanding change but didn’t change politicians. They left Republicans in charge of the House, elected an even more Democratic Senate and re-elected President Obama. They’re unhappy with the status quo in the country but left the political status quo in place. That doesn’t […]

Election 2012 has had few surprises. So it’s somewhat surprising that heading into the final weekend of the election season, we are unable to confidently project who is likely to win the White House. All year long, the economy has been the No. 1 issue of the campaign. That hasn’t changed. While Mitt Romney has […]

In Election 2000, Florida was the decisive state in the Electoral College. In 2004, Ohio was the ultimate battleground that put George W. Bush over the top. This year, it might come down to Wisconsin. That’s a state President Obama won by 14 points four years ago. But Wisconsin has gone through an amazing two […]

When 2012 began, the presidential race looked too close to call, but most analysts thought the Republicans had a good chance to win control of the Senate. The numbers were just too daunting for the Democrats. They had too many seats to defend and too many vulnerable incumbents. Now, 10 months later, the race for […]

According to Political Class pundits, the race for the White House was turned upside down by a single debate. The reality, however, is that a very close race shifted ever so slightly from narrowly favoring President Obama to narrowly favoring Mitt Romney. Either way, it remains too close to call. The difference is that voters […]

The first presidential debate of 2012 is now behind us. The reviews suggest that many were surprised at how well Mitt Romney did and how weakly President Obama performed. The Instant Polls conducted by CBS and CNN showed Romney as the big winner. In fact, CNN found that Romney emerged with the largest advantage from […]

The presidential debate season is upon us with President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, scheduled to square off Wednesday night in the Political Class version of a cage match. Heading into the debates, the conventional wisdom suggests that Romney has fallen way behind and has to dramatically change the course of the race […]

Mitt Romney’s comments about 47 percent of Americans being dependent on government and locked in to vote for President Obama highlight a fundamental reality in American politics today: The gap between the American people and the political class is bigger than the gap between Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C. Romney’s remarks are the GOP […]

The health care debate is a great example of why Americans hate politics. Both Republicans and Democrats pursue their plans with ideological zeal and reckless disregard for the truth in hopes of winning 51 percent of the vote. Voters hold their nose and choose but would rather have their leaders search for consensus. That would […]

Mercifully, the political conventions have ended. The political press will keep buzzing over whether Clint Eastwood’s unconventional speech helped or hurt Mitt Romney and whether the snafu over Israel and God in the Democratic platform will do any lasting damage to President Obama. Republican reporters will think former President Clinton talked too long, and Democrats […]

Political junkies get excited about the Republican and Democratic national conventions, but for many Americans they provide a stark reminder of how out of touch our political system has become. The strange rituals and bad jokes seem oddly out of place in the 21st century, almost as strange as seeing an engineer use a slide […]

When Republicans formally nominate Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan next week, the race against President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will be officially underway. Yet while the two teams represent different ideological views, different upbringings, different faith backgrounds and different experiences, neither of them has yet inspired any confidence among voters. Just 32 percent […]

One of the things Mitt Romney’s selection of Paul Ryan as his running mate ensures is a series of polling questions over the coming months asking voters what’s more important: creating jobs or cutting government spending; helping the economy or cutting deficits; repealing the president’s health care law or focusing on the economy. These questions […]

Just 16 percent of voters nationwide believe it was a good idea for the government to provide Solyndra with loan guarantees. The solar power company went bankrupt and stuck taxpayers with the tab for a half-billion dollars. The Obama administration generally has responded to questions about the program in the way a venture capital firm […]

In my hometown, everyone is required to have a landline telephone so local officials can reach us with a reverse 911 call. It’s a nice idea, but it doesn’t work. In my family, we never use the landline. We talk on cellphones. Occasionally, telemarketers call. So do people looking for someone named “Danny,” but we […]

Consumer confidence fell to the lowest levels of 2012 this past week. Most Americans believe that both the economy and their own personal finances are getting worse. Just 25 percent believe the economy is getting better, and only 22 percent say the same about their personal finances. Still, the lows of 2012 aren’t nearly as […]

Over the past few weeks, President Obama and his campaign team have launched a furious attack on Mitt Romney’s record as head of Bain Capital, a highly successful venture capital firm. There is clear evidence that the attacks have had some impact. Forty-one percent of voters now see Romney’s record in the private sector primarily […]

There are plenty of reasons that the economy is the most important issue of Election 2012. Unemployment has remained high for a long time, and even 27 percent of those who have a job are worried about losing it. Only half of homeowners now believe their home is worth more than what they still owe […]

Democrats were riding high in the polls in 2006 and 2008, and one of their big issues was health care. Then, after passing the president’s health care law, the politics shifted, and the issue helped sweep the GOP to victory in the 2010 midterm elections. A few months later, Republicans had a 14-point advantage in […]

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that President Obama’s health care law is constitutional keeps it alive for now. But it’s important to remember that the law has already lost in the court of public opinion. The Supreme Court ruling is a temporary reprieve more than anything else. In March, I wrote that the health care […]

Every summer, millions of Americans enjoy baseball, summer camps and vacation plans. But for the nation’s political junkies, every fourth summer is filled with guessing games about the vice presidential nomination. While the guessing games are fun, it’s more accurate to look at the fundamentals facing the candidate and what he hopes to achieve. In […]

The new Federal Reserve report showing that household net worth collapsed between 2007 and 2010 quickly became campaign fodder for both sides. Republicans seized on the data to claim that the current administration is out of touch. President Obama helped the GOP with his comments that the private sector is doing fine and that small […]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg ignited a firestorm of debate with his proposal to ban super-size sugary drinks in New York City. Critics bashed his nanny-statism, but supporters like first lady Michelle Obama hailed his courage. Nationally, just 24 percent of American adults think the ban is a good idea, while 65 percent oppose it. This response […]