Is the Defendant White or Not?

As jury selection continues in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the defendant in the Boston Marathon bombings, so does debate about what would constitute a fair and impartial jury. … Within hours of the F.B.I.’s release of the suspects’ photographs, we collected responses from 426 white Americans to a broad […] Read more »

Americans’ Views on 10 Key State of the Union Proposals

Gallup data reveal how Americans’ views line up with 10 key issues raised by President Barack Obama in his 2015 State of the Union address Tuesday night. CONT. Frank Newport, Jeffrey M. Jones & Lydia Saad, Gallup Read more »

Democrats and Republicans Agree on More Than You Think & Why That Matters for 2016

By now, everyone knows that our political parties are deeply polarized—and the American people only somewhat less so. Does that mean that we can’t even agree on the problems we need to address? To some extent, according to a recent Pew Research Center study, the answer is yes. There are […] Read more »

What the Public Wants Obama to Address in the State of the Union Speech

… We combed through our latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll to determine what the American public says should be an absolute priority for the coming year. Overall, Americans said their three top priorities for the country in the coming year are creating jobs (85 percent agreed), defeating and dismantling […] Read more »

State of the Union 2015: How Americans see the nation, their leaders and the issues

President Obama and other administration officials have been road-testing several possible themes and proposals that are likely to come up in his State of the Union speech today. Here’s a look at public opinion on the issues that Obama and Republicans say they will push in the coming year, as […] Read more »