Illinois Republicans may have to start working on different strategies for 2010, depending on who wins the other party's Senate primary.

A poll released Thursday showed that Sen. Roland W. Burris, D-Ill., would lose by more than 2-1 to his most-likely Republican opponent, Rep. Mark Steven Kirk. In that theoretical head-to-head matchup, Kirk would be favored by 53 percent and Burris by 19 percent of voters.

The survey by Public Policy Polling found that if Burris isn't his party's nominee, the landscape for Kirk is much different.

Barack Obama, the nation's first nonwhite president, was voted into the White House by the most racially and ethnically diverse electorate in history.

According to a Pew Research Center report, nearly one in four voters in the 2008 presidential election was not white.

White voters comprised 76.3 percent of the 131 million people who cast a ballot in the 2008 presidential election, down from 79.2 percent in 2004 and 80.7 percent in 2000. Black voters comprised 12.1 percent of the 2008 electorate, compared to 7,4 percent for Hispanics and 2,5 percent for Asians.

Approval ratings for Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland remain high, although a survey finds that most adults in his state think the economy there is bad and getting worse, according to a poll released Thursday.

Strickland, a Democrat, was elected in 2006 and is up for re-election next year.

Fifty-six percent of those surveyed said they approve of the way Strickland is handling his job, while 34% disapprove, according to the Ohio Poll by the University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research.

She's not a candidate yet, but Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan would be strong favorite if she decides to run for either governor or senator, according to the latest voter survey by Public Policy Polling.

The survey of 415 likely Democratic primary voters April 24-26 found that Madigan leads current Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn by 16 points, 45 percent to 29 percent, even though 56 percent of the respondents said they're happy with Quinn's job performance so far. Only 14 percent disapproved of his performance.

But Madigan drew a 74 percent favorable rating from respondents, which helps to explain why 44 percent of those surveyed said they would support her over other possible Democratic primary contestants, including Sen. Roland W. Burris, in a 2010 race for the Senate.

New Jersey Republican Chris Christie has pulled slightly ahead of incumbent Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine, according to a Monmonth University/Gannett New Jersey poll seven months before voters choose their next governor.

The survey of 690 registered voters taken April 23-27 had Christie, a former U.S. attorney, leading Corzine by 4 points, 39 percent to 35 percent.

But Corzine still held a small advantage, 37 percent to 33 percent, over Bogata Mayor Steve Lonegan, who is facing off against Christie in the Republican primary June 2. In January, the same poll showed Corzine leading Christie 38 percent to 36 percent, and put him way ahead of Lonegan, 45 percent to 29 percent.

There are more than 1,200 days between now and the 2012 presidential election, and President Barack Obama's handling of his job over that long haul will determine whether he will be granted a second term in the White House. But the battery of national polls timed to his 100th day since taking office on Jan. 20 -- a milestone that Obama reached on Wednesday -- show that he at least has gotten off to a popular start.

Surveys released Wednesday by the Gallup organization and by the polling unit at Connecticut's Quinnipiac University both showed Obama with strong job approval ratings that cut across demographic lines and reach beyond the president's base of self-identified Democrats.

The Gallup poll showed Obama was given a favorable job approval rating by 65 percent of 3,534 adult respondents in tracking polls conducted April 20-26. The poll, which has a 2 percentage-point statistical margin of error, showed 29 percent disapproved of Obama's performance. The Quinnipiac poll of 2,041 registered voters conducted April 21-27 showed approval ratings of 59 percent positive and 30 percent negative, with a 2.2-point margin of error.

A new poll gives Terry McAuliffe a double-digit lead over former state Rep. Brian Moran and state Sen. Creigh Deeds, his rivals for the Democratic nomination for governor of Virginia.

But that same poll shows the extent of challenges ahead for whichever Democrat is on the general election ballot: Republican Bob McDonnell leads each of them in general election match-ups, although Deeds is closest with a difference of 5 percentage points.

Still, a majority of likely Democratic voters who responded to the SurveyUSA poll say they still may change their mind before the June 9 primary.

President Obama's popularity remains high at the 100-day mark of his presidency, says a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, with tentative support for some of his most complex policy goals, including health care and energy overhauls.

On energy, 53 percent of those surveyed approved of a proposal that would require companies to reduce greenhouse gases that cause global warming, even if it would mean higher utility bills for consumers.

The numbers are not so overwhelming on health care: Without being given a description, 33 percent said Obama's plan is a good idea, vs. 26 percent who said it's a bad idea. When given a description, 56 percent said they favored the plan and 33 percent opposed it.

The strong job approval ratings that Barack Obama has enjoyed over his first three months as the nation's first African-American president also appear to be improving perceptions of race relations in the United States -- particularly among blacks.

This conclusion is based on a New York Times/CBS News poll taken April 22-26 and released Tuesday. The poll showed 27 percent of 973 adult respondents said race relations had improved since Obama became president, while only 6 percent said they had worsened. A majority, 63 percent, said race relations had not changed, and 4 percent said they did not know or gave no answer.

The idea that race relations have improved received somewhat stronger agreement among the 212 black respondents to the poll than among the 701 white respondents. Race relations were seen as improved by 32 percent of blacks and by 23 percent of whites. There was no statistically significant difference on the question of whether race relations have gotten worse: 5 percent of blacks and 7 percent of whites stated that view. The view that race relations haven't changed was held by 65 percent of whites and 59 percent of blacks.

With nearly 100 days of policy-making under his belt, President Obama remains in sync with Americans on the issues and his personal popularity remains high, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll.

In the survey of 2,019 adults conducted April 23-26, 57 percent said Obama agrees with them "on the issues that matter most" to them, nearly even with the 60 percent that said that of Obama in a survey taken less than a week before he was elected president. As he has transitioned from promising policy to making it, Obama hasn't lost much support for his agenda. At the same time, his personal popularity is taking off, according to the poll.

A new Gallup Poll shows 51 percent of Americans in favor of an investigation into the interrogation techniques used on terrorism suspects during the Bush administration, with 42 percent opposed to such a probe.

The poll, conducted April 24-25, also showed 55 percent of Americans believe in retrospect that using such techniques was justified, while 36 percent say it was not.

The Obama administration recently released documents that revealed the Bush administration's legal justification for using "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation that many consider to be torture. Congress followed that release by issuing a report saying Bush administration officials in fact authorized the use of such techniques.

While yet another poll shows that President Obama enjoys strong public approval for the way he has done his job in the first 100 days, his most recent action - ordering the release of previously secret Bush administration records about interrogation of terrorism suspects - draws far less support.

The new survey also revealed divisions on the use of torture and whether there should be an investigation into Bush administration policies.

Sixty-nine percent of the public approves of Obama's job performance compared to 26 percent who do not, a net gain of five points since March, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted April 21-24.

Since the latest 100-day approval rating poll on Barack Obama is about the same as all the rest this week, we'll start with Congress where voters approve of the job congressional Democrats are doing by 50 percent to 40 percent and disapprove of Republicans on the Hill by 52 percent to 36 percent, according to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted April 22-23.

Forty-six percent of voters say that they'd back a Democrat for Congress in 2010 to help Obama pass his programs while 33 percent would vote Republican to put a check on his power. Seventeen percent say it's too soon to make that decision.

Two-thirds of Americans give President Obama credit for trying to be bipartisan but they have a dimmer view of lawmakers on Capitol Hill, particularly the Republicans, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted April 20-21.

By 66 percent to 30 percent, the public says Obama has made a sincere effort to work with members of the opposite party. Forty-four percent believe that of congressional Democrats compared to 50 percent who do not, and only 38 percent believe the Republicans have made a sincere attempt compared to 56 percent who say they have not.

Forty-one percent of self-identified Republicans say Obama has made a sincere attempt to work with the GOP as do 62 percent of independents.

A majority of Democrats (52 percent) and Republicans (55 percent) say the overall tone and level of civility in Washington has not changed. A third of Democrats say it has improved, but only 17 percent of independents and 11 percent of Republicans agree.

The 100 day polls are being rolled out one-by-one and Gallup weighed in with its survey, conducted April 20-21, saying that President Obama has met or exceeded public expectations with his performance so far.

Similarly, an Allstate/National Journal poll conducted April 8-14 found broad support for Obama with a 61 percent job approval figure compared to 28 percent disapproving. The public believes the country is on the right track by 47 percent to 42 percent but on the economy, in specific, they say by 55 percent to 30 percent the country is headed in the wrong direction.

(Other polls on public views of Obama at the 100 day mark that came out this week were from Public Policy Polling and Pew Research Center).

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter badly trails primary challenger Patrick J. Toomey, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll 13 months before GOP voters will choose their Senate nominee.

The survey, taken of 490 likely Republican voters on April 21, had Toomey leading Specter by 21 percentage points, 51 percent to 30 percent. Forty-two percent of respondents said that they had either a "very favorable" or "somewhat favorable" impression of Specter, compared to 55 percent of Republicans who said they had "somewhat unfavorable" or "very unfavorable" feelings about the senator.

The comparable numbers for Toomey, a former House member from Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, were 66 percent favorable and 19 percent unfavorable.

Republican Sen. Sam Brownback holds a strong lead in the 2010 race for Kansas Governor, according to a recent poll, but the race to succeed Brownback appears to be too close to call at this early stage.

A SurveyUSA poll conducted April 17-19 found Brownback led his strongest GOP competitor, Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh, by 47 percent: 64 percent to 17 percent. The remaining 20 percent of respondents were undecided.

Colorado's first-term Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter, Jr. looks on shaky ground, for now, when it comes to re-election in 2010 with his job approval ratings flipping from positive to negative since January, according to a Public Policy Polling survey conducted April 17-19.

Forty-nine percent disapproved of the way he is doing his job compared to 41 percent who gave him positive marks, with 9 percent undecided. In January, he had a positive favorable-to-unfavorable ration of 47 percent to 40 percent.

In a different take on President Obama's 100-day ratings, Public Policy Polling found Obama's job approval ratings lower than in a Pew Research poll released today, but decided to take things a step further (actually four years further) and match him against potential GOP opponents in 2012. And by that measure, he's doing a lot better than potential Republican contenders.

Obama leads Newt Gingrich 52 percent to 39 percent with 9 percent undecided; Mike Huckabee by 49 percent to 42 percent with 9 percent undecided; Sarah Palin by 53 percent to 41 percent with 6 percent undecided and Mitt Romney by 50 percent to 39 percent with 11 percent undecided.

Correction: The original version of this posting incorrectly said that 20 percent of those surveyed said their one-word impression of President Obama was that he was a "Socialist." In the Pew poll, this figure represented the number of individuals in the entire sample who chose that word, and not a percentage of the entire sample.

The 100-day mark that has become a media event for gauging the first-lap of new Presidents is upon us (President Obama will mark it next Wednesday with a town hall meeting in St. Louis), and a survey by the Pew Research Center says he is reaching the milestone with higher job approval ratings than most of his predecessors.

Six weeks out from the June 2 primary for New Jersey governor, polls show Republican Chris Christie continuing to top his primary challengers as well as sitting Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine.

A poll of registered voters conducted April 14-20 by Quinnipiac University showed Christie, a former U.S. Attorney, besting his closest primary competitor by 9 percentage points. Christie led former Bogota, N.J. mayor Steven M. Lonegan 46 percent to 37 percent. State assemblyman Rick Merkt placed third among likely Republican voters with 2 percent of support.

Democrat Michael Bennet, appointed to fill the seat of Ken Salazar when he was tapped as Secretary of the Interior, has his work cut out for him if he is to put himself in a strong position for re-election in 2010, according to a Public Policy Polling survey conducted April 17-19.

Forty-one percent of voters disapprove of his job performance compared to 34 percent who give him positive marks, with 25 percent undecided. One of his weaknesses is with the 14 percent of the sample who are Hispanic and may still be unhappy that a Hispanic was not named to succeed Salazar. They disapprove of him by a 45 percent to 36 percent with 18 percent expressing no opinion. That compares to the 58 percent to 36 percent approval ratio that President Obama enjoys. Independents also disapprove of Bennet, by 43 percent to 32 percent with 25 percent undecided.

New York Gov. David A. Paterson's handling of the state's and his own office's finances are driving his approval ratings ever lower. The latest poll from Siena Research Institute conducted April 13 to 16 found that 63 percent of registered New York voters had an unfavorable opinion of Paterson and 81 percent rated the job he is doing as governor as fair or poor. Both those numbers are the highest the poll has registered since it began surveying opinion about Paterson in the spring of 2008.

A majority of those polled said that three issues - the governor's negotiating of the state budget in secret, his approval of pay raises for his staff, and the way he has addressed the state's financial situation - have greatly contributed to his declining popularity

The decision of Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez not to seek a second term has left a void on both sides of the political spectrum when it comes to the 2010 race, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted April 6-13.

Some of the high-profile prospects decided early-on not to seek the seat, such as former GOP Governor Jeb Bush and the state's chief financial officer Alex Sink.

Popular Republican Gov. Charlie Crist could change all that if he decided to seek the seat, although Quinnipiac says that voters by 42 percent to 26 percent would rather see him remain as governor. If Crist did run in a GOP primary against a list of potential candidates tested in the poll, he would garner 54 percent of the vote with all others in single digits.

The Internet became even more ingrained in American politics during the 2008 campaign with nearly three-quarters of web users going online to look for news and information or to communicate with others about politics, according to the Pew Research Center which gathered the data between Nov. 20 and Dec. 4 of last year.

That number represents 55 percent of the adult population and Pew says this was the first time that more than half of the voting age population went online to connect to politics during an election cycle.

Six in 10 used the internet to get news or information about the campaign, representing 44 percent of all adults, and nearly one-fifth did so on a daily basis.

Minnesotans are starting to get restless about their lack of a second senator, a survey by Public Policy Polling shows.

The poll found that 63 percent of voting-age Minnesotans surveyed said they believe Republican Norm Coleman should concede his race against Democrat Al Franken.

The telephone survey conducted April 14 and 15 also asked whether Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty should sign the election certificate naming Franken the winner and whether Franken should be seated right away.

A plurality of registered voters now think the country is headed in the right direction with that view held by an overwhelming number of Democrats, a majority of independents but rejected by almost two-thirds of Republicans, according to a Marist Institute poll conducted April 1-3. Marist listed ten polls dating back to January on this question, and today's was the first where "right trackers" outnumbered "wrong trackers."

If North Carolina's Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper decides to challenge first-term Republican Sen. Richard Burr in 2010, the race "automatically becomes a tossup," according to Public Policy Polling survey conducted April 8-11.

Cooper leads Burr 41 percent to 37 percent with 22 percent undecided. The margin of error is 3.1 points. That doesn't sound like a whopping lead, but PPP's Dean Debnam says, "It's quite unusual for an incumbent who doesn't have major ethical problems to trail an unannounced challenger."

Unlike poor Jon Corzine in New Jersey, a Democrat whose popularity has been tanking because of the economy in that state, Florida's Republican governor, Charlie Crist enjoys a 66 percent job approval rating even though whose state has been suffering through one of the worst downturns, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted April 6-13. Only 23 percent of voters disapprove of the way Crist is doing his job.

Florida voters say by 58 percent to 28 percent with 14 percent undecided that Crist deserves re-election in 2010 and that includes 52 percent of Democrats. Against a generic Democratic opponent, Crist leads 47 percent to 27 percent with 26 percent undecided and, in answer to this question, a quarter of Democrats say they'd back Crist.

While President Obama is reportedly making preparations for a new push on immigration, the issue ranks at the bottom of five priorities that Rasmussen reports presented to voters in a poll conducted April 11-12.

Forty-one percent put top priority on reducing the deficit, 26 percent on health care reform, 11 percent on finding new energy sources, 9 percent on ensuring every child has access to a good education and 5 percent on passing a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

President Obama by far commands the highest level of trust to do the right thing on the economy compared to any of the other players in government whether in his administration, on the Hill or at the Fed, Gallup poll conducted April 6-9.

Seventy-one percent said they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in Obama compared to 51 percent for Democratic leaders in Congress, 49 percent for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, 47 percent for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and 38 percent for Republican leaders in Congress.

Nearly all Democrats put Obama on the top of their list and so do 68 percent of independents. Republicans trust their congressional leaders the most with 57 percent putting their confidence in them, with Obama second at 38 percent. Bernanke is trusted most by Democrats (64 percent). Forty-four percent of independents have confidence in him and only 36 percent of Republicans share that.

Former Delegate Brian Moran leads onetime Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe and state Sen. Creigh Deeds among Democrats in the race for the party's gubernatorial nomination, but his margin over McAuliffe is modest and the number of undecideds high, according to a Research 2000 poll conducted Apr. 6-8.

Moran scores 24 percent of voters to 19 percent for McAuliffe and 16 percent for Deeds, with 41 percent undecided. That pretty much tracks with a Public Policy Polling survey conducted at the end of March. The margin of error is 4 points.

Research 2000 matched all three Democrats against former Republican Attorney General Bob McDonnell and had Moran in a statistical tie with McDonnell leading 37 percent to 36 percent with 27 percent undecided; McConnell leading McAuliffe 40 percent to 33 percent with 27 percent undecided; and McConnell leading Deeds 38 percent to 31 percent with 31 percent undecided.

Voters approve of President Obama's handling of the economy by 54 percent to 37 percent, according to a Marist Institute poll conducted April 1-3. Democrats endorse that view by an overwhelming 83 percent to 7 percent, independents agree by 54 percent to 36 percent, and Republicans disapprove by 67 percent to 24 percent.

Obama gets positive marks by majorities in every region except the West where voters split 49 percent to 46 percent. The margin of error is 3.5 points.

Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine's approval ratings are stagnating among registered New Jersey voters. A Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind poll conducted March 30-April 5 showed that 40 percent of registered voters approved of Corzine's job as governor, while 49 percent disapprove. That matches Corzine's approval rating from the university poll released in March, though his disapproval rating is up slighting, from 46 percent.

A majority of voters - 71 percent -- also rated Corzine's job performance as fair or poor. Sixty-eight percent said the same thing in the March poll.

Voters displeasure with Corzine appears to stem in part from his handling of the state budget. Forty-four percent of voters think Corzine's proposed budget is bad for New Jersey, 24 percent think it is good, and 32 percent were unsure.

It's been a tough year so far for two-term Republican Sen. Jim Bunning and a new survey by Public Policy Polling conducted April 2-3 has some more bad news with Kentucky voters disapproving of his job performance by 54 percent to 28 percent with 18 percent undecided. In trial heats against four Democrats, Bunning trails them all.

It's also cause for concern for his fellow Republicans who have made no secret of their concern that he is in danger of losing his seat), not only because of poll numbers, but his anemic fundraising numbers. To make matters worse, he has engaged in a public spat with his fellow Kentuckian, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who is also trying to raise money to wipe out a $2 million campaign debt he incurred in fighting off a challenge last year by Democrat Bruce Lunsford.

The wide partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans as far as their job approval ratings of President Obama was put at 61 percent last week in a survey by the Pew Research Center and now a Gallup poll conducted March 30 April 5 sets it at 63 percent.

The partisan gap stood at 53 percent at the beginning of March and has been in the low-to-mid 60s ever since. In February, 41 percent of Republicans gave Obama a positive approval rating, which then was down to 35 percent at the start of March and has now fallen to 27 percent.

Gallup says the size of this gap exceeds the norm for many recent presidents. The average Republican-Democratic gap for seven presidents dating back to Harry Truman was 35 percent. The most polarizing presidents were Ronald Reagan (53 percent), Bill Clinton (55 percent) and George W. Bush, whose median gap was 64 percent, but hit a high of 83 percent in Fall, 2004.

President Obama's approval rating has gone up a notch since last month as has the number of Americans who believe the country is getting on the right track, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted April 1-5.

Sixty-six percent approve of Obama's performance while 24 percent disapprove compared to 64 percent to 20 percent in March. Fifty-three percent still think the country is on the wrong track compared to 39 percent who say it is headed in the right direction, but that's an improvement over the 57 percent to 35 percent ratio a month earlier. That is consistent with other polls which shows the number of Americans believing the country is on the right track increasing such as a Washington Post/ABC News survey in late March.

North Korea's test launch of a rocket on Sunday put potential foreign threats back on the front page, and it is one of four international matters that now rank as high or higher than Iraq and Afghanistan in the concerns of Americans, according to a Gallup poll conducted April 1-2.

International terrorism ranks at the top of the list with 59 percent saying they are "very concerned" about it. That is followed by worries about Iran's nuclear capabilities (54 percent), North Korea's nuclear capabilities (52 percent) and 51 percent cited drug violence in Mexico, the same number who chose the conflict in Afghanistan. Iraq came next at 48 percent.

Fewer Americans were "very concerned" about the military power of China (39 percent), the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (35 percent) and Russia's military power (25 percent).

The 2010 outlook still looks murky for New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand who was named by Gov. David Paterson to fill the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton. She is still so unknown, as are her potential Democratic and Republican challengers, that it is hard to read much into the potential match-ups and favorability numbers in the latest Quinnipiac University poll conducted April 1-5.

Sixty-four percent of voters said they don't know enough about Gillibrand to have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of her, and that's true for 53 percent upstate where her former congressional seat was located. Sixty-eight percent have not heard enough about Long Island Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a potential Democratic challenger, to have an opinion of her. And 67 percent say the same about Republican Rep. Peter King.

McCarthy leads Gillibrand 33 percent to 29 percent among Democratic voters if the two faced each other in a primary, with 33 percent undecided. (The margin of error is 3.8 points). In a general election match-up, Gillibrand leads King 40 percent to 28 percent with 28 percent undecided.

It's been a long downhill slide in the polls for New York Gov. David Paterson and while it's impossible to say if he has hit bottom, a new Quinnipiac University poll conducted April 1-5 says he now has the lowest approval rating ever for anyone in that job.

Voters disapprove of his performance by 60 percent to 28 percent and that includes 51 percent of Democrats. By an even greater margin - 63 percent to 22 percent - they say that he does not deserve to be elected to a four-year term in 2010, a view shared by 52 percent of Democrats. By 53 percent to 39 percent, voters think his standing in the polls is so low that he should announce now that he won't run.

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who Paterson passed over in naming a Kirsten Gillibrand to Hillary Clinton's vacated Senate seat, would beat Paterson in a primary by 61 percent to 18 percent, the poll said. In a general election, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani would win 53 percent to 32 percent, with Giuliani picking off 3 of 10 Democratic voters. But Cuomo would beat Giuliani 53 percent to 36 percent.

In a poll conducted before Sunday's actual test launch of a three-stage rocket, 73 percent of voters said they were very or somewhat concerned that North Korea might acquire the capability of using nuclear weapons against the U.S., according to a Rasmussen Reports poll.

The survey conducted April 3-4 said 57 percent said the U.S. should take military action to prevent North Korea's ability to develop a long-range missile that could be used to hit the U.S. with nuclear weapons. But voters were unconvinced that offering incentives to North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program was worth the effort. Fifty-one percent said the U.S. should not offer to help rebuild North Korea's economy in exchange for such an agreement while 27 percent said they would make that deal.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver seems to have some explaining to do before he stands for re-election in 2010.

His approval rating slipped to 55 percent in the Des Moines Register's new Iowa Poll. As recently as January, the same poll pegged the governor's approval at 60 percent.

Presumably more worrisome for the incumbent Democrat: Of the 802 Iowa adults surveyed, just 35 percent said they would definitely vote to re-elect Culver. Another 28 percent said they would consider somebody else and 18 percent said they would definitely vote for someone else.

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that it is important for President Obama to improve U.S. relations with Muslim nations and most believe Obama will strike a strategy for doing so that is "about right," Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted March 26-29.

Eighty-one percent believe the U.S. needs to better its relations with the Muslim world compared to 18 percent who say it is not important. Sixty-five percent believe Obama will approach this challenge correctly, while 22 percent say he will go too far and 9 percent say "not far enough." In his inaugural address, Obama pledged to find a "new way forward" with Muslim countries.

Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Islam by 48 percent to 41 percent with 11 percent undecided. Fifty-eight percent regard Islam as a peaceful religion, while 29 percent say it encourages violence, with 13 percent undecided.

A couple of polls today tackled the question: are we getting too much of Barack Obama?

Pew Research, based on a survey conducted March 27-30, said there's no sign yet of "Obama Fatigue." Fifty-four percent said they have been hearing the right amount about Obama, compared to 34 percent who said they had been hearing too much. Eight percent said "too little." They must not have caught Obama on Leno.

Republicans have a different point of view. Fifty-nine percent of them say they have heard too much.

Becoming President much change perceptions because, last August, 48 percent said they were hearing too much about Obama compared to 41 percent said it was the right amount.

What would a rematch look like between South Dakota's GOP Sen. John Thune and the man he beat in 2004, former Sen. Tom Daschle? Thune edged the former Senate Democratic leader by 50.6 percent to 49.4 percent last time, and a Research 2000 poll conducted March 30 - April says that Thune would win 53 percent to percent with 7 percent undecided if a 2010 vote were held today.

Research 2000 also matched Thune against Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and showed Thune beating her 51 percent to 39 percent with 10 percent undecided.

Thune has better favorable-to-unfavorable rations than either Democrat at 57 percent to 32 percent. Daschle's is 50 percent to 43 percent, and Herseth Sandlin's is 53 percent to 31 percent.

Most voters still have a pretty bleak view of the state of the economy and the direction of the country but 47 percent say they would put the blame on former President Bush rather than Barack Obama if the economy doesn't improve or worsens in the next six months, according to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted March 31 - April 1. A quarter of voters would blame Obama, 9 percent would blame both a nd 15 percent say neither.

Twenty-nine percent finger corporate leaders as the biggest culprits in precipitating the financial crisis, 23 percent point to the Bush administration, 19 percent blame congressional leaders and 5 percent say Obama.

Anyone still feeling warm and fuzzy about the bipartisan spirit that President Obama fostered during his first weeks in office will find some sobering news deep in the monthly presidential job-approval ratings compiled by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

It turns out Obama has the most politically polarized early job-approval score in the modern era of polling.

Recent number crunching revealed a staggering 61-point partisan gap in Democratic and Republican opinions about Obama's job performance in the survey of 1,308 adults Pew conducted March 9-12.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd's stepped-up outreach at home does not seem to have helped him thus far with Connecticut voters. The Democrat's approval ratings sunk even further in a new Quinnipiac University poll conducted March 26-31.

Voters disapprove of Democrat's job performance by a margin of 58 to 33 percent. That is up from 49 percent disapproval in a poll released March 10. At that time, 44 percent approved of Dodd's job performance. A majority of Connecticut voters - 54 percent - also said they did not think the senator is honest and trustworthy.

The Quinnipiac poll also shows Dodd trailing all three potential Republican challengers in hypothetical match-ups, with vote percentages only in the 30s and Democratic support in the low 60s.

President Obama and congressional Democrats continue to ride significantly higher than Republicans in public opinion with a majority of voters saying they trust Obama more the GOP lawmakers on the economy, and Hill Republicans getting much lower job approval marks than their Democratic counterparts, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted March 24-30.

Voters pick Obama over congressional Republicans on handling the economy by 55 percent to 27 percent with 18 percent undecided. Judged by himself, 55 percent approve of Obama's handling of the economy compared to 37 percent who don't.