Public Opinion Strategies

This past week, my wise and insightful partner Glen Bolger posted a blog entry labeled, “The Tipping Point.” It is definitely worth reading.
The premise of the bit is while a majority of voters have become disapproving of the President, there is still a well of good will toward the President personally.   A series of data [...] Read more

Since Truman, five presidents have won re-election and two have lost.   The average Misery Index for the winners was 8.89 the October prior to the November election.
In contrast, the two losers (Presidents Carter and Bush 41), suffered from an average Index of 15.39.  Ouch.
Where is President Obama?  As of last month, the Index was pegged [...] Read more

With State Senator Alberta Darling’s 54% win last night, Public Opinion Strategies helped defend the GOP majority and turn back a public employee union sponsored recall election.
Congratulations to Senator Darling and all of those involved in the campaign.
From the get-go, the campaign used our research to guide its messaging – Darling was NEVER below 50%, [...] Read more

Could Libertarian cult-icon Neil Peart – drummer and song-writer for the Canadian band Rush – be the Idea Man of the GOP? If it’s true, he would be on the cutting edge of an already large and growing constituency: voters who don’t trust government.
And, it’s not just when it comes to health care.
The enclosed tunes [...] Read more

You would never know it by reading the rock-and-roll press: metal band AC/DC has sold more records in the U.S. than Michael Jackson or Bruce Springsteen. More than 200 million albums world-wide and trail only the Beatles as the second best selling act EVER. “Back In Black” is the second best-selling album in history – [...] Read more

The Michigan Consumer Confidence Index numbers for August are out: 65.7, or one of the 33 worst months on record. The University of Michigan started the Index in winter of 1978 and has released data monthly ever since.
While not as predictive as one of our other favorite indexes, the Misery Index, the consumer confidence index [...] Read more

Here at Public Opinion Strategies, it is axiomatic that a president’s job approval is held captive by the mood of the country.  Between President Obama’s swearing in and early June, national right direction numbers ballooned from 28% up to 46% while his job approval hovered in the low 60s. Since early June, right direction numbers [...] Read more

My partner Glen’s OCD is well-placed when it comes to Independent voters; where they end up will decide the 2010 elections.  But, their swollen ranks have not just come by way of GOP defections.  Thanks to the total, complete, consolidated, and dominating power of President Obama and Congressional allies in Congress, they are now coming [...] Read more

Predictions of the Grand Old Party’s demise are exaggerated, the numbers show a party clawing its way out of the grave. Look at the simple chart below. It’s an amalgamation of two sets of numbers, all taken from a huge data of information taken from NBC News-Wall Street Journal surveys. It explains a lot.
The first [...] Read more

Our most recent national survey asked a battery of questions on President Obama’s economic policies and the stimulus. In a nutshell, when it comes to Americans: Read more

55% support it;
56% support it and either believe it will work or hope it will work;
57% believe it will help most Americans, and
50% believe it will help they and their [...] Read more