… Most of these end-of-Obama sentiments are sincerely felt, and there are plenty of Obama-specific reasons for making these judgments. Yet they all lack historical perspective. In fact, the notion that the Obama presidency is all but over has arrived right on schedule for any second-term president. … During his […] Read more »
The Cost of War
Here we go again. Wednesday night, during a prime-time speech, the president laid out his plan for dealing with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS. … Although nothing may soon rival the staggering deception and disaster of the Iraq war, it still stands as our most […] Read more »
Barack Obama vs. George W. Bush — in charts!
… In the states where Quinnipiac polls — mostly states in the bluer Northeast — Obama is underwater on approval in each. We were curious about this, and reached out to Quinnipiac to see if it would be generous enough to share a full set of the data with us. […] Read more »
America’s political barometer
There is no special insight in saying the American electorate is deeply unhappy with our political leadership, the economy, and the direction of the country. But, as pollsters, we do keep looking to find new and insightful ways to measure this discontent and compare it across time. Even after a […] Read more »
President George W. Obama Meets the Midterms
I certainly didn’t know foreign policy would be front and center in the final months before the midterm elections when I wrote in late April that these issues “could have an indirect yet significant impact on the midterm elections.” But now, it looks increasingly as if foreign policy — particularly […] Read more »
World of Hurt
The iron fist failed. Then the velvet glove failed. That’s undoubtedly a simplistic verdict on the foreign policy records of the past two presidents, George W. (“iron fist”) Bush and Barack (“velvet glove”) Obama. But it now appears inevitable that the 2016 foreign policy debate will unfold against a widespread […] Read more »