Bruce Drake
Drake began his career with the New York Daily News, spending most of that time in Washington covering Congress, national politics and the Reagan White House... moreCan Scott Brown Win Again in Massachusetts? Poll Suggests He Can
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown stunned the White House and the Democrats when he won the seat held for half a century by Democratic stalwart Edward Kennedy in a special election last January. He has to run again in 2012, and this year's midterm elections, which produced big victories for the GOP, were a reminder that he will be seeking re-election in a state that bucked the national trend by re-electing all of its Democratic House incumbents. That has raised the question of whether Brown's win was a combination of running in a year of disgruntled voters and against a Democratic candidate, ...
Americans Want the Bush Tax Cuts Extended, but Differ on Income Limits
The starting point for President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress on what to do about the soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts had been to extend them for everyone except high-income families earning over $250,000 a year. But as David Leonhardt writes in Wednesday's New York Times, that's no longer much of an option, given the Republicans' new clout on Capitol Hill, and talk has turned to making the income cutoff $1 million or packaging an extension of the cuts for all with other measures that would help the economy such as tax cuts for businesses that added workers. Earlier this month, ...
Public Favors Spending Cuts to Reduce Deficit, but the Question Is What to Trim
Rising concern over the size of the federal deficit was a drum that Republican leaders beat through the midterm election campaign, and that concern clearly helped motivate President Obama's decision Monday to freeze the pay of all federal civilian employees for the next two years, although the savings from that will be a drop in the bucket. The issue will be one of the areas that will test whether Obama and the Democrats can reach areas of agreement with newly empowered Republicans on Capitol Hill on how to tackle the red ink. The extent that public opinion outside Washington will drive ...
Public Opinion on Progress of Afghan War Turns More Positive
Earlier this month, a Quinnipiac University poll had shown a sharp turn to the negative on public support for U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, but a new USA Today/Gallup poll says that while a majority of Americans don't think the war is going well, their numbers have dropped since earlier in the year. The USA Today/Gallup survey, conducted Nov. 19-21, found 52 percent saying that they thought the war was going moderately or very badly, with 45 percent believing it is progressing moderately or very well. But that compares to its poll in late 2009 in which Americans said by 66 percent to 32 ...
Most Americans Support Allowing Gays to Serve Openly in Military, Poll Finds
The Defense Department has said it plans to release its report Tuesday on the impact of repealing the military's "don't-ask-don't-tell policy" regarding gays in the military in hoping of pushing along a Senate vote on the issue during its lame-duck session. A new Pew Research Center survey says a clear majority of Americans continue to support allowing gay and lesbian soldiers to serve openly. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed in a poll conducted Nov. 4-7 say they favor allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the military while 27 percent are opposed, with 16 percent undecided. This is ...
A Second Poll This Week Says Voters Don't Want to Re-Elect Obama
Another poll -- this one by McClatchy/Marist Institute -- has weighed in on President Obama's 2012 re-election prospects and found that 48 percent of registered voters say they'd cast their ballots against him while 36 percent would support him for another term, with 16 percent undecided. The poll was conducted Nov. 15-18. It comes on the heels of a Quinnipiac University survey, conducted Nov. 8-15, that said 49 percent of registered voters did not think Obama deserved a second term compared to 43 percent who said he did, with 9 percent undecided. As with the Quinnipiac poll, one of ...
Poll: Majority of Americans Say Health Care Law Should Stand or be Expanded
Fifty-one percent of registered voters say that Congress should let the new health care reform law continue as is or change it so that it does more, according to a McClatchy/Marist Institute poll conducted Nov. 11-15. Thirty-three percent want to repeal it completely, 11 percent want it changed so that it is less sweeping and 5 percent are undecided. Among those who support the legislation, 16 percent are in the "let it stand" camp while 35 percent believe it should be changed to do more. The Republican congressional leadership included a vow to repeal health care in its pre-election ...
Americans Say Taxes Are Top Priority for Lame-Duck Congress
Americans put two tax issues -- preventing the return of the estate tax and extending the Bush tax cuts -- at the top of the priority list for the lame-duck Congress, but when the numbers are broken down along party lines, there are sharp differences among Republicans and Democrats, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Nov. 19-21. Fifty-six percent of the overall public says that passing legislation to keep the estate tax from returning next year is "very important" and 50 percent put the same value on extension of the Bush tax cuts in "some form." Under a previously enacted law ...
New Yorkers Doubt That Bloomberg Would Make a Good President
If you do a Google search on the words "Bloomberg" and "president" you can find news articles dating back to at least 2006 about the prospects that Michael Bloomberg, New York City's wealthy and independent-minded mayor, might make a third-party bid for president. Even though he recently told The Washington Post he wouldn't run because a third-party candidate could only hope to be a spoiler, the stories will probably persist. Apparently, Bloomberg forgoing a bid for the White House is just fine with New York City voters. A Quinnipiac University poll conducted November 16-21 found that 61 ...
Poll: Public Backs Full-Body Scans at Airports, but Splits on Pat-Downs
As the debate over what critics regard as overly intrusive security measures at airports heats up, a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted Nov. 21 finds that 64 percent of those surveyed support the use of full-body scans while 32 percent say they invade privacy by producing X-ray images of the passenger's naked body. Four percent had no opinion. But when it comes to the pat-downs that are required if a passenger chooses to "opt out" of the full body scan, 50 percent say that the touching of sensitive areas of the passenger's body by screeners goes too far while 48 percent believe it is ...
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