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Poll Reveals America’s Number One Problem

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A recent Gallup poll revealed that a plurality of Americans view the government as the No. 1 problem facing the country. . .

More than one in five voters (21 percent) told pollsters that dissatisfaction with some facet government or poor leadership was the most important problem the U.S. faces today.

Immigration and illegal aliens came in second at 16 percent. That’s a six-point drop from July, when voters said immigration was the leading problem in the country — pushing government out of the top spot. During that time, stories of the separation of illegal alien parents and children dominated headlines as the Trump administration announced it would fully enforce immigration laws. . .

In January 2017, the month President Donald Trump was sworn in, 11 percent of Americans named the government the top problem. As rancor in Washington, D.C., has increased over the last 19 months, that percentage has increased markedly — hitting a high of 25 percent in both June 2017 and January 2018.

Race relations and racism came in a distant third at 7 percent, followed by “unifying the country” (6 percent). (Read more from “Poll Reveals America’s Number One Problem” HERE)

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Gallup: Republicans Can’t Avoid Abortion in 2014 Elections

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The Republican establishment may boast that it beat back some Tea Party challengers in this week’s primaries, but GOP candidates cannot hope to retake the Senate if they ignore the issue of abortion, a new Gallup poll indicates.

One-quarter of Republican voters say a candidate must protect life to earn their vote, the polling company found.

Nearly one-in-five people (19 percent) say they would “only vote for a candidate who shares your views on abortion,” and pro-life voters are one-third more likely to feel that way than pro-abortion voters.

Self-described “pro-choice” voters are much more likely to say they “don’t see abortion as a major issue.”

“The pro-life side has more intensity on the issue,” Gallup reports of its most recent survey. In all, 11 percent of all registered voters said they would only vote for pro-life candidates, and eight percent said they would only vote for candidates who call themselves “pro-choice.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Where Does Your State Rank? Gallup’s Most Conservative to Most Liberal

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Photo Credit: APThe percentage of people living in Washington, D.C., who call themselves liberals is far greater than the national percentage, and significantly greater than the percentage in any of the fifty states, according to polling data released today by Gallup.

Nationally, 23 percent of American adults call themselves liberals, according to Gallup, and 38 percent call themselves conservatives.

But in Washington, D.C., 38.1 percent call themselves liberals–65.6 percent more than in the nation as a whole.

After D.C., Vermont is the most liberal jurisdiction, with 32.4 percent of people there calling themselves liberals.

The top five most conservative states are: Wyoming, Mississippi, Idaho, Utah, and Arkansas.

Read more from this story and see the full rankings HERE.

Americans Don’t Think Health Care is Government Responsibility

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Photo Credit: Thinkstock ImageFifty-six percent of American adults say it’s not the federal government’s responsibility to ensure everyone in U.S. has health insurance, according to a new poll from Gallup.

Just 42 percent believe it is the responsibility of the government, the lowest number recorded since Gallup began tracking the opinions in 2000.

Photo Credit: Gallup

Read more from this story HERE.

Attorney’s for DOJ’s anti-Gallup “Whistle-Blower” Lawsuit are Major Obama Donors

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The two law firms representing whistle-blower Michael Lindley in a case against The Gallup Organization supported by the Department of Justice are stacked with donors to President Barack Obama’s political campaigns, according to political donation records published by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The legal complaint against Gallup indicates that the DOJ is relying solely on Lindley’s allegations to back its claim that Gallup defrauded the federal government by allegedly overcharging for polling services it provided various federal agencies. Since Lindley left Gallup, two whistle-blower law firms have picked up his complaint. Each is filled with major Obama and Democratic Party donors.

Debra Katz of the law firm Katz, Marshall & Banks LLP has donated thousands to Obama’s campaign efforts, records show. In 2008, she made three donations to then-Sen. Obama’s run for president, totaling $4,300. She also donated $1,000 to the Democratic firm DNC Services Corp. in 2008.

Records show also that over the course of the 2012 election cycle Katz has donated $1,250 to Obama’s presidential campaign, $250 to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and $2,000 to Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin’s U.S. Senate campaign.

Lisa Banks of the same firm originally supported now-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid, donating $2,500 to her campaign before Clinton dropped out of the race in recognition of Obama’s likely insurmountable delegate lead. In October 2008, she then donated $1,500 to Obama. Banks has donated $1,000 to Baldwin’s 2012 campaign.

Read more from this story HERE.

Americans’ Distrust of Media Highest in History

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Americans’ distrust in the media hit a new high this year, with 60% saying they have little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. Distrust is up from the past few years, when Americans were already more negative about the media than they had been in years prior to 2004.

The record distrust in the media, based on a survey conducted Sept. 6-9, 2012, also means that negativity toward the media is at an all-time high for a presidential election year. This reflects the continuation of a pattern in which negativity increases every election year compared with the year prior. The current gap between negative and positive views — 20 percentage points — is by far the highest Gallup has recorded since it began regularly asking the question in the 1990s. Trust in the media was much higher, and more positive than negative, in the years prior to 2004 — as high as 72% when Gallup asked this question three times in the 1970s.

This year’s decline in media trust is driven by independents and Republicans. The 31% and 26%, respectively, who express a great deal or fair amount of trust are record lows and are down significantly from last year. Republicans’ level of trust this year is similar to what they expressed in the fall of 2008, implying that they are especially critical of election coverage.

Independents are sharply more negative compared with 2008, suggesting the group that is most closely divided between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney is quite dissatisfied with its ability to get fair and accurate news coverage of this election.

More broadly, Republicans continue to express the least trust in the media, while Democrats express the most. Independents’ trust fell below the majority level in 2004 and has continued to steadily decline.

Read more from this story HERE.

Poll shows atheism on the rise in the US, religion declining

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The poll, called “The Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism,” found that the number of Americans who say they are “religious” dropped from 73 percent in 2005 (the last time the poll was conducted) to 60 percent.

At the same time, the number of Americans who say they are atheists rose, from 1 percent to 5 percent.

The poll was conducted by WIN-Gallup International and is based on interviews with 50,000 people from 57 countries and five continents. Participants were asked, “Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious person, or a convinced atheist?”

The seven years between the polls is notable because 2005 saw the publication of “The End of Faith” by Sam Harris, the first in a wave of best-selling books on atheism by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and other so-called “New Atheists.”

“The obvious implication is that this is a manifestation of the New Atheism movement,” said Ryan Cragun, a University of Tampa sociologist of religion who studies American and global atheism.

Read more from this story HERE.

Americans’ confidence in US media hits all-time low; perceive it as biased, dishonest

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America’s confidence in TV news has hit a new low, but should anyone be surprised? According to Gallup’s analysis of their annual Confidence in Institutions survey, only 21 percent of Americans have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in TV news. Newspapers don’t fare much better with only 25 percent of respondents expressing confidence. Gallup’s survey, which was conducted from June 7-10, was released last month and was predictably ignored by pretty much everyone except Newsbusters’ own Tim Graham who reported on its findings here. Confidence in TV news has seen a seven point drop since last year alone (down from a still-embarrassing 28 percent in 2011). And this survey was conducted before two major cable news networks botched their initial reports on the outcome of the Supreme Court’s ObamaCare decision on June 28.

So what could possibly account for this drop? The answer is simple: the networks refuse to Tell the Truth, and the American people are sick and tired of it. Even liberals (19 percent) and moderates (20 percent) have lost faith in TV news, although, not surprisingly, self-identified Democrats have the highest confidence at 34 percent compared to 17 percent for Republicans and 17 percent for Independents. This shouldn’t come as any shock given the media’s torrid love affair with Democrat superhero Barack Obama.

Whether it’s CBS claiming current tax rates will somehow “cost taxpayers,” or CNN scolding a Republican for being a “sore loser” for not embracing ObamaCare, or The New York Times once again blaming Bush on Obama’s behalf, the media have continued to show a complete contempt for the truth. And those are just a few examples from the past couple of weeks.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

Gallup: Virtually no support for third party candidacy in 2012

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U.S. registered voters show limited support for third-party candidates this year, with the vast majority preferring Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. A June 7-10 Gallup poll asked a special presidential preference question, listing three third-party candidates in addition to Obama and Romney. Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson is the choice of 3% of registered voters and Green Party candidate Jill Stein the choice of 1%. Another 2% volunteer Ron Paul’s name and 1% mention someone other than the listed candidates.

Gallup periodically asks a vote preference question during presidential election years, in which interviewers read the names of all candidates who will appear on the ballot in a large number of states, as one way of measuring third-party support. These findings reflect Gallup’s first such measurement in 2012. The resulting data suggest 5% of U.S. voters could vote for a third-party candidate this year, which could rise if Paul changes course and runs as an independent.

The standard presidential preference question included in Gallup Daily tracking mentions only Obama and Romney by name and finds a consistent 1% volunteering the name of some other candidate as their choice for president. The 1% is in line with the vote for third-party candidates in recent presidential elections when no high-profile third-party candidate (like Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, and Ralph Nader in 2000) ran.

Prominent third-party candidates have tended to receive significantly higher support in polls taken earlier in election years than they wind up getting on Election Day. This is based on a comparison of registered voter preferences in June with the final election vote share in years when higher-profile third-party candidates were included in Gallup’s presidential preference questions. In general, the candidates wound up getting a fraction of their June estimated support — in most cases, less than half.

The drop in support during the campaign is likely due to two factors. First, historically, third-party candidates’ support typically drops as the campaign approaches Election Day, perhaps because voters realize the candidates have little chance to win. Second, generally speaking, support for third-party candidates tends to be higher in the broader pool of registered voters than in the smaller group of actual voters.

Read more from this story HERE.

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