Gallup 9/1
Republicans Disproportionately White and Religious
About 9 out of 10 Republicans are non-Hispanic whites, and more than half of these are highly religious. That compares with 62% of the Democratic rank-and-file that is white and largely less religious, with blacks and Hispanics making up a much more substantial part of that party's base. ...

Gallup 9/1
Americans Give GOP Edge on Most Election Issues
A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds Americans saying the Republicans in Congress would do a better job than the Democrats in Congress of handling seven of nine key election issues. ...

Washington Post: Dan Balz 9/1
Outlook for Democrats? Cloudy, with a chance of pain.
The Gallup organization dropped a bomb on the political world this week. In shorthand, the pollsters said Monday that if the midterm elections were held now, Republicans would take control of the House - and probably by a comfortable margin. ...

ABC News: Gary Langer 8/31
Iraq and the Costs of War
In marking the end of the combat mission in Iraq it's worth noting how broadly unpopular the war became, and its profoundly negative impact on the presidency of George W. Bush – doing more than anything else to make him the most persistently unpopular president of our lifetimes. ...

Kaiser Family Foundation 8/31
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll
The August Health Tracking Poll finds that support for health reform fell over the course of August, dipping from a 50 percent favorability rating in July to 43 percent, while 45 percent of the public reported unfavorable views. ...

Gallup 8/31
Religiosity Highest in World's Poorest Nations
... In the world's poorest countries -- those with average per-capita incomes of $2,000 or lower -- the median proportion who say religion is important in their daily lives is 95%. In contrast, the median for the richest countries -- those with average per-capita incomes higher than $25,000 -- is 47%. The United States is one of the rich countries that bucks the trend. ...