No. 76 : Mike Berman’s Washington Watch

No. 76

State of the Nation

At the end of July, 67% said the country is on the wrong track. That is pretty much what the mood has been for the last several months. The number who think the country is headed in the right direction,...

President Bush

The question is not whether the President will be a liability to Republican candidates in the coming election, but how much of a liability he will be. As it now stands, he is likely to be a considerable liability. 56%...

2008 Presidential Campaign

The Presidential primary campaign is a play in multiple acts. Act II has begun. During Act I the major candidates, for the most part, played quite nicely together and were basically positive. In fact, they might have been described as...

The Field

The field has diminished only slightly with Tommy Thompson's announcement, after the Iowa Straw Poll, that he is out of the race. Technically there are 8 Republicans and 8 Democrats still in the race. The reality is something else. There...

2008 Democratic Primary

Hillary Clinton has consistently led the Democratic primary field since the 1st of the year. There has been no national poll in which she was not #1. Here are Gallup surveys, at roughly mid-month since January. Clinton Obama Edwards...

2008 Republican Primary

In much the way Clinton has done in the Democratic primary, Giuliani has led the Republican primary field since January. He has not been headed in any national poll during the period. Here are the Gallup surveys, at roughly mid-month,...

The Ames Straw Poll

Politics is full of rituals. The Republicans' Ames straw poll is one of them. And like other rituals, at least in modern times, it doesn't seem to mean a whole lot in the broader scheme of things. What does seem...

Let Us Remember

At this time in 1991, Mario Cuomo was still leading in national polls in the Democratic primary. In 2003 by this time, Lieberman had lost his lead to Dick Gephardt, who was leading marginally over Dean, Lieberman, Kerry, and Clark...

The General Election

General election polls taken this early aren't worth much, but here they are for your prurient interest. The Democracy Corps survey aggregated 4,000 interviews conducted over a 4 month period ending in early August and found that Democrats had a...

Electoral College Reform

Currently, two States, Nebraska (5 electoral votes) and Maine (4 electoral votes), allocate their electoral votes by Congressional districts. In all other States electoral votes are allocated on a Statewide, winner-take-all basis. Earlier this year Democrats in North Carolina proposed...

2008 Congressional Campaign

In six national surveys taken after Congress had recessed for the month of August, the average job approval rating for Congress was 22%, with disapproval at 68%. [Polling Report, 8/6-8/22/07] The 18% approval rating recorded by Gallup in mid-August was...