Gallup Poll

Gallup Poll officials said Tuesday that the polling organization is ending its 14-year relationship with CNN this summer in order to launch its own Internet channel that will allow for more in-depth analysis of surveys. "We have great respect for them as a news-gathering organization," said Steve O'Brien, senior advisor to the Gallup Poll, which is continuing its relationship with USA Today. "We just decided it was time for us to get involved in producing and distributing our own content."

For the average American, $770 is no small sum. But that's how much they'll each shell out on average for Christmas gifts this year. That's roughly the equivalent of three iPhone 5 smartphones, with tax. Consumers have boosted their holiday spending each year since 2009, when the price tag on Christmas gift-giving plunged to a two-decade low of $616 per person. The $866 figure from 2008 capped a six-year rise, according to an annual poll of more than 1,000 adults by Gallup.

A new poll sponsored by the American Jewish Committee indicates strong sentiments within the so-called religious right for "Christian nationalism," the notion that America's political problems can be solved by focusing government more on a Christian outlook.

I could not have been more than 5 years old when my mother took me with her to vote in our Chicago neighborhood. I can still see the exotic array of curtains to draw and levers to pull towering over my head like the control panel operated by the Wizard of Oz. The image is enshrined in my memory. This was voting, and it was to be treated with reverence. Over the years, I've voted in Illinois, Washington, D.C., and California. Rarely have I voted by absentee ballot. To me, voting is not only a profound right but a rare opportunity to physically exercise the most important duty of American citizenship.

Most Americans are satisfied with their work, and slightly fewer than last year fear they might lose their jobs in the next six months, according to a poll released today. Fifty-nine percent said they are extremely or quite satisfied at work, whereas just 6% said they are extremely or quite angry, according to the poll conducted by the Gallup Organization. Twenty-seven percent said they are very concerned or somewhat concerned about losing their jobs, compared with 32% last year.

Almost half of Americans polled (49%) say that President Bush should get a new running mate in 1992, while only slightly more than a third (35%) say that Vice President Dan Quayle should be retained, according to a new Gallup Poll. Thirty-one percent of the American public now feels that Quayle is qualified to serve as President, with 54% saying that he is unqualified and 15% unsure.

The public is leaning against the North American Free Trade Agreement, with only 38% in favor and 46% opposed, a Gallup Poll found last week. The remaining 16% said they had no opinion. Among those who feel intensely about the issue, opinion against NAFTA is lopsided; only 10% strongly support it, and 20% are strongly opposed. Strong supporters of former presidential candidate Ross Perot, representing about one in six Americans, are opposed by a 63%-26% margin.

Republican George Bush is clinging to a narrow lead over Democrat Michael S. Dukakis, and Sunday night's debate had little effect on voter preferences, according to the latest Gallup Poll. Bush's lead was 47% to 42% among 1,020 registered voters interviewed Tuesday and Wednesday, little changed from Gallup's previous survey taken Sept. 9-11, which gave Bush a 49%-41% lead. The margin of error on both surveys was 4 percentage points.

Margaret Thatcher's popularity has slumped to the lowest of any British prime minister for at least 50 years, a new Gallup poll showed today. The poll said that out of more than 10,000 people interviewed, 24% said they were satisfied with Thatcher's performance--a drop of 5.2% since the last poll. That figure would make her the least-popular prime minister in Britain since opinion polls began here more than half a century ago.

Paul K. Perry, 95, who greatly improved the reliability of political polls after the 1948 election in which top pollsters wrongly predicted the defeat of President Harry S. Truman, died of a cerebral hemorrhage April 7 at a hospital in Princeton, N.J. Perry also helped build the Gallup Poll as its chief statistician. He succeeded George Gallup as president in 1958, and remained in that post until his retirement in 1979. Born in Camden, N.J.

The percentage of Americans who say they are “pro-choice” reached a record low, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday, but the political impact of the new data remain unclear given the volatile nature of the abortion issue. According to Gallup, 41% identified themselves as “pro-choice,” while 50% said they were “pro-life.” The poll , conducted May 3 to May 6, was based on a sample of 1,024 adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

New figures from Gallup place President Obama's reelection bid in a precarious gray zone between the one-term exit of presidents like George H.W. Bush, and successful second-term victories like those of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Combining Obama's job approval rating with several evaluations of public sentiment on the economy, Gallup's indicators show that the president is performing better than he was just a year ago, but his numbers are nonetheless lackluster compared with those of his predecessors.

The first Gallup poll of the general election campaign shows Mitt Romney edging out President Obama, a close result that both parties expect will be the case through much of the next seven months. The former Massachusetts governor, emerging from a difficult and longer-than-expected Republican nomination battle, has the support of 47% of registered voters nationwide, while the president has the support of 45%. Two percent of voters said they supported another candidate, while 7% were undecided.

Contrasting the results of the first Gallup daily presidential poll , CNN and ORC International have found President Obama in possession of a 9-point lead over presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. The 52%-43% split in favor of the president runs counter to Gallup's results, which placed the former Massachusetts governor in the lead with 47% to Obama's 45%. Results of a poll delving deeper into the candidates themselves also leaned in Obama's favor.

The White House's proposed "Buffett Rule" looks like a political winner, at least for now. A new Gallup poll finds that six in 10 Americans support the idea of a law that would require households that earn $1 million or more a year to pay a minimum 30% tax rate, as President Obama has called for. Thirty-seven percent are opposed. Three out of four Democrats favor the plan, while Republicans are split 43% for and 54% against. Among independent voters, 63% back the idea, while 33% oppose it. Last September, Obama called for tax reform that would, in part, ensure that the middle class did not have a higher tax burden than "millionaires and billionaires.

It looks like concern within Mitt Romney's campaign that the prolonged Republican presidential primary could damage his standing among undecided voters has some legitimacy. A new USA Today/Gallup poll gauging support among independents in swing states finds that President Obama holds a 48% to 39% advantage over the presumptive GOP nominee Romney, a significant change from polling conducted last year. The poll, conducted before Romney's primary victories on Tuesday, also places Obama's overall support in 12 swing states above Romney's, 51% to 42%. The key to these results is the sizable departure of independent women from Romney's camp over the last few months to Obama's.

Public trust in the the nation's air travel system is declining, with two-thirds of those questioned saying they have less confidence in the safety and reliability of airlines than they did a few years ago, according to a Gallup poll published today. "The decline in confidence is seen across the board--among men and women, young people and older people, and among both the college-educated and less well-educated," said Larry Hugick, senior project director for Gallup.

Vice President George Bush and Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis have wide leads over their respective challengers among New Hampshire voters who expect to vote on primary day, Feb. 15, according to a Gallup Organization poll released today. In the Republican race, Bush leads Kansas Sen. Bob Dole by a 38%-23% margin. Upstate New York Rep. Jack Kemp is third in the GOP race with 15%. Former Delaware Gov. Pierre S.

A new Gallup poll shows that President Obama has opened up his largest lead over Mitt Romney to date, both nationally and among voters in a dozen key November battlegrounds. Obama's 51% to 42% lead among registered voters in 12 "swing states" is his first over Romney in the USA Today/Gallup poll . Romney led in those states 48% to 46% in the previous survey in mid-February. Driving that advantage is a significant gender gap. The two are statistically tied among men, with Romney's 48% to 47% lead within the margin of error.

The return of Betty -- now better known as “Fat Betty” -- on Sunday's '60s-era drama “Mad Men” elicited similar reactions around the Web: Pity. Where once there was an impossibly svelte, aloof and vain woman who was impossible to feel for, even as her (now ex-) husband was running around town with other women, there is now a remarried and hopeless housewife, whose dramatic weight gain seems to leave her with two choices: a life resigned to Bugles by the handful or a prescription for diet pills, per the advice of her mother-in-law.