Women favor enacting a law to address climate changel more strongly than men and older voters are more likely to oppose it, according to a Rasmussen survey conducted Aug. 29-30.

The House passed its version of a climate change bill in late June and the Senate is scheduled to tackle its measure in the coming months.

The survey of 1,000 adults showed 35 percent of Americans favor the climate change bill, while 40 percent oppose it.

Nearly one adult in four — 24 percent — are not sure whether passage of the bill is a good idea — findings which reflect virtually the same results as in late June.

The approaching flu season has caught the nation's attention with 55 percent of U.S. adults saying they plan to be inoculated once a vaccine for the swine flu becomes available, according to a Gallup poll conducted Aug. 26.

That's up from the 46 percent who said in early May they wanted to be vaccinated.

Down, though, is public confidence in the federal government's ability to deal with a flu outbreak, falling from 74 percent in early May to 60 percent Aug. 26.

"Throw the bums out" goes beyond baseball: More than half of voters said they would vote to replace the entire Congress, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey conducted Aug. 27-28.

In the telephone survey of 1,000 voters, just 25 percent told pollsters they would vote to keep the current roster of lawmakers, while 18 percent said they are not sure how they would vote.

The current numbers show little change since October. When Congress was passing the $700 billion bailout plan during the presidential campaign and an impending meltdown of the financial industry, 59 percent wanted to throw out all members and 17 percent wanted to keep them.

Half of South Carolina voters asked whether scandal-plagued Gov. Mark Sanford should stay or go picked "resign" in a poll conducted Thursday by Insider Advantage.

Of those responding to the poll of 917 voters, 50 percent said they were for Sanford's resignation, while 37 percent believed he should remain in office and 14 percent had no opinion.

There have been growing calls for Sanford to step down since he admitted in June to an affair with a woman in Argentina. Since then, additional questions have been raised about his travel spending as governor, hurting his image as a fiscal conservative and leading to investigations into whether Sanford broke the law.

About half of likely voters think the health care overhaul proposed by President Obama and backed by Democrats in Congress will become law this year, despite the fact that a roughly equal number of them don't like it, according to according to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Aug. 25-26.

Half the sample contacted for the poll said they thought the overhaul would lower the quality of health care, and in answer to a separate question 52 percent said it would make health costs rise.

Rasmussen said that during the debate on health care, public confidence in the system now in place has risen, with 48 percent of adults rating it good or excellent, and 19 percent rating it poor.

Republican challenger Chris Christie's lead over Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in the New Jersey governor's race has shrunk slightly from 13 percentage points to 11, according to an Aug. 25 Rasmussen Reports poll of 500 likely voters.

Christie, a former federal prosecutor, led Corzine 47 percent to 36 percent in the latest poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. In Rasmussen's early August poll, 50 percent favored Christie and 37 percent backed Corzine. The election is Nov. 3.

Rasmussen's analysis found that "leaners" are trending towards Corzine, who is seeking a second term. "Leaners" are defined as respondents who initially show no preference, but in a follow-up question indicate that they are leaning toward a candidate.

Republican John Oxendine, and Democratic former Gov. Roy Barnes were leading the early running in Georgia's gubernatorial primaries in an Aug. 21-23 Strategic Vision, poll.

But it's still early -- the parties aren't picking their nominees until July 20, 2010 -- and many voters remain undecided, the poll of 800 likely voters shows.

Oxendine, the state insurance commissioner, was the potential GOP primary choice of 39 percent of the Republicans surveyed, while Rep. Nathan Deal was preferred by 13 percent; Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, 12 percent; state Sen. Eric Johnson, 6 percent, and two additional GOP candidates received marginal support. A total of 25 percent of respondents indicated they were undecided in the GOP primary.

President Obama's approval rating is at 51 percent and could wind up as one of the fastest declines in presidential approval since World War II, according to a poll conducted by Gallup Aug. 23-25.

Only presidents Gerald R. Ford and Bill Clinton took faster falls in approval after taking office. Ford dipped below majority approval after three months in office, and Clinton reached that point after four months in the White House, Gallup said.

President Eisenhower had the longest run of popularity in office, with 63 months above the 50-percent mark. At its lowest point, his popularity reached 48 percent in March and April 1958 and rebounded back to majority approval, Gallup said.

Democrat Blanche Lincoln will have to address a serious popularity slump back home as she gears up her 2010 bid for a third Senate term in Arkansas. Lincoln held a 36 percent job approval rating, to 44 percent disapproval, in an Aug. 21-24 Public Policy Polling survey of Arkansas voters.

The same survey showed Lincoln just neck-and-neck, or even slightly trailing, when matched up against three potential Republican challengers -- even though none of those GOP contenders is well known statewide.

Lincoln trailed by 41 percent to 40 percent in a hypothetical matchup with Curtis Coleman, CEO of Safe Foods Corp., a company based in North Little Rock that provides services to food processing companies; 19 percent of respondents said they were undecided. That virtual tie came about even though 80 percent of respondents indicated they didn't know Coleman well enough to form an opinion of him.

If the 2012 election were held now, President Obama would be re-elected comfortably, despite his approval sliding below 50 percent and rising doubts among independent voters, according to a Clarus Research Group poll conducted Aug. 14-19.

Clarus found that Obama would win in trial heats against a slate of possible Republican candidates:

-- Against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 47 percent to 38 percent;

-- Against former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, 53 percent to 34 percent;

An overwhelming majority of parents, 76 percent, are satisfied with the quality of education their children receive in public school, while just 45 percent of adults overall feel the same way about the public schools in general, according to a Gallup poll conducted Aug. 6-9.

"It is not unusual to find that Americans rate aspects of society more negatively at the national level than they do at the local level," Gallup said. "Education is a prime example of this phenomenon."

Gallup said satisfaction levels with the performance of public schools have been steady for the last decade, both among adults in general and among the parents of public school students.

Gallup said it finds little evidence that opinion has been changed by passage of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation signed into law in 2002, setting standards for test scores and curriculum.

The poll was based on telephone interviews with 1,010 adults and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick continues to lose support in Massachusetts, a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Aug. 20 finds. Patrick now trails potential Republican challenger Christy Mihos.

In June, the same hypothetical matchup showed the governor with 41 percent to the businessman's 40 percent. The new poll showed Mihos holding steady, favored by 40 percent of those surveyed, but the incumbent falling to 35 percent.

In another hypthetical matchup, Patrick is in a dead heat with health care executive Charlie Baker, edging him by a statistically insignificant 40 percent to 39 percent, but in June that same matchup showed Baker trailing 41 percent to 36 percent.

David A. Paterson's depressed approval ratings as governor of New York have prompted many fellow Democrats to look longingly toward popular state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as they await the 2010 contest for the state's top job. And the latest test of public opinion won't weaken that sentiment a bit.

Cuomo is as well thought-off as ever, while a recent uptick for Paterson seems to have plateaued, according to a poll conducted by Siena College Aug. 17 to 20.

Cuomo -- who has been relatively reticent on the matter but has not ruled out a governor's bid -- received a 70 percent favorability rating from New York voters, while just 14 percent viewed him unfavorably, an all-time low. A majority, albeit slim, of 52 percent said they would prefer to see Cuomo run for governor, compared to 35 percent who said he should run for re-election as Attorney General.

Paterson's approval rating continues to hover in the 30's, after dropping into the 20's in the spring.

There's a long way to go before the 2010 elections, but public opinion in Nevada suggests that things certainly could be going better for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his political family.

Reid, who is preparing to run for a fifth Senate term, trailed two potential GOP challengers, real estate developer Danny Tarkanian and Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Lowden, in a survey taken by Mason Dixon Polling and released Sunday by the Las Vegas Review Journal.

And Rory Reid, the senator's son and a county commissioner in Las Vegas, lagged in third place in a three-way match-up of potential Democratic candidates for the 2010 Nevada governor's race -- according to Mason-Dixon polling released Friday.

A Rasmussen Reports poll on the race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in Georgia shows state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine holding an early lead in a crowded field.

In the Aug. 18 poll of 799 likely Republican primary voters, 31 percent of those surveyed said they supported Oxendine. Rep. Nathan Deal and Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel each received the support of 13 percent of those surveyed. Additional candidates received marginal support.

As he struggles to pull off an overhaul of the nation’s health care system and right the economy, the news is bad and could get worse for President Obama, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll showing that confidence in his leadership has dropped significantly since April.

The Post-ABC telephone survey of 1,001 adults nationwide found that only 49 percent of Americans now believe Obama can make the right decisions for the country, compared to 60 percent at the 100-day mark of his administration back in April.

At the same time, confidence in his ability to make changes for the better has dropped from 69 percent at the start of his presidency to 49 percent today, an indication that the intense opposition to health care reform is beginning to take its toll on Obama’s efforts.

Overall, however, Obama still has a 57 percent job approval rating in the survey conducted Aug. 13-17, even though it found that 55 percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track — a change from 48 percent in April when Obama’s job approval stood at 69 percent.

The number of Americans with a favorable view of the Democratic Party has dipped below 50 percent for the first time since President Obama’s inauguration, according to a new poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.

The poll found that just 49 percent of Americans have a good opinion of the party that controls Congress and the White House. Sixty-two percent had a favorable opinion in a similar poll conducted shortly after Obama took office, and in April, 59 percent of Americans were still supportive of the Democrats.

The survey of 2,010 people, conducted Aug. 11-17, also found that 51 percent still approve of Obama’s job performance, while 37 percent disapprove. But the president has lost a lot of ground with independents, who are now almost evenly divided in their opinions of Obama’s job performance. Forty-five percent approve of what he’s doing, and 43 percent disapprove.

In June, 56 percent of independents approved of Obama’s performance to just 29 percent who disapproved. At the same time, only 40 percent of independents have a favorable view of the Democratic Party, which is a decline of 12 points since April.

Criticism of President Obama’s efforts to overhaul the nation’s health care system may be growing, but a new Rasmussen poll indicates that most Americans still blame his predecessor, George W. Bush, for the nation’s economic woes.

The national telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters found that 55 percent still believe the policies of the Bush administration brought on the recession, while 39 percent blamed Obama’s policies for the bad economy.

In May, a similar Rasmussen poll found that 62 percent blamed Bush and 27 percent Obama. But the new survey continued to show that a large number of Americans don’t trust the president when it comes to making the right decisions about the economy.

For example, only 27 percent of those questioned trust Obama’s judgment on economic matters, while 60 percent said they trust themselves more than the president when it comes to making decisions on economic issues.

The poll taken Aug. 15-16 has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percent.

Republican Gov. Charlie Crist holds a robust lead over primary opponent Marco Rubio, a former state House speaker, in the 2010 Florida Senate primary race, according to new polls from Quinnipiac University and Rasmussen Reports.

In the Quinnipiac poll of registered voters conducted Aug. 12-17, Crist led Rubio 55 to 26 percent in the race for the open seat. The poll's margin of error for Republicans was plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.

The Rasmussen poll of likely Republican primary voters conducted Aug. 17 found Crist leading Rubio 53 to 31 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Rubio is running to the right of Crist, but trails the governor in name identification and fundraising at this early stage.

The open-seat 2010 race for governor of Florida remains up for grabs.

Republican Bill McCollum, the state Attorney General, edged ahead of Democrat Alex Sink, the state chief financial officer, by 38 percent to 34 percent among registered voters, according to a new poll by Quinnipiac University.

McCollum's edge in the survey, conducted Aug. 12-17, is not definitive, as his 4 percentage-point lead is barely more than the poll's statistical margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. And more than a quarter of the respondents to the poll -- taken more than 14 months before the general election -- declared themselves undecided.

The new results are an uptick for McCollum, though - an exact reversal from Quinnipiac's June 9 survey that showed Sink leading McCollum by 38 percent to 34 percent.

U.S. consumers’ confidence in access to health care and their future well-being declined last month, as debate over President Obama’s proposed overhaul of the health system intensified, a new telephone survey found.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s monthly health care consumer confidence index found the largest drop in confidence among individuals age 65 and older, who registered a 10.4 point decline in their confidence level during the month.

Individuals in the age group 50-64 had the lowest confidence level overall. Last month the confidence level for the cohort fell 4.4 points from 95.1 points in June to 90.7 in July. The overall score in July was 97.2, down from the June confidence level of 102.3. The measurement is based on a scale of 0 to 200 and was culled from telephone interviews with 500 respondents.

The survey found widespread anxiety among individuals about being priced out of the health care marketplace. Nearly 52 percent of respondents said they were worried they will not be able to pay for their future health care needs in the event of a serious illness. Forty-seven percent are worried they will not be able to afford all of the routine health care services they need. And 36 percent are concerned they will not be able to afford future prescriptions.

Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate in January, looks vulnerable as he prepares to seek election in 2010.

A survey of Colorado voters conducted August 14 to 16 by Public Policy Polling gave Bennet an approval rating of just 31 percent, compared to a 38 percent disapproval rating.

The survey found no single candidate dominating the pivotal Senate race and Colorado voters appear underwhelmed by their choices. The survey of 969 voters had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percent.

For the first time since last year’s election, the percentage of people expecting a tax cut has fallen into the single digits, according to a new Rasmussen poll.

The poll showed that only 6 percent of voters now expect their taxes to decline under President Obama. The nationwide telephone survey of 1,000 voters conducted Aug. 13-14 found that 42 percent expect their taxes to increase, while 40 percent believe their federal tax burden will remain about the same. Twelve percent were undecided.

The results of the survey continued a downward trend, apparently tied to ongoing debates over how to pay for an overhaul of the nation’s health care system and new energy and other potentially expensive legislation.

When he was elected, 22 percent of voters surveyed believed Obama, who promised to cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans, would actually reduce their payments to the IRS.

The health care overhaul plans wending their way through Congress are not generating much enthusiam among the electorate according to a Rasmussen Reports survey, which found 54 percent say no health care overhaul passed by Congress this year would be the better option.

The survey, conducted Aug. 13-14, showed 35 percent of Americans say passing a bill would be better than not passing any health care overhaul legislation this year.

Most voters do not oppose health care overhaul, the survey said, but the results highlight the level of concern about the specific proposals that congressional Democrats have approved in a series of committees. To this point, there has been no Republican support for the legislative effort, although the Senate Finance Committee is still working toward a bipartisan solution.

As the debate over health care overhaul rages on, a new Marist poll shows Americans believe President Obama needs to do more to convince them it is the right course of action.

The poll, conducted Aug. 3-6, showed 45 percent of registered U.S. voters say they disapprove of how Obama is handling health care while 43 percent approve. Along party lines, 74 percent of Democrats approvie of the way Obama is dealing with the issue and 76 percent of Republicans disapprove.

A majority of independents, 52 percent, are unhappy with the way Obama is addressing the health care situation.

Although 65 percent of U.S. residents, including 67 percent of registered voters nationwide, think the nation’s health care system needs major change, many are not optimistic about the impact of health care overhaul.

North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr has opened a double-digit lead against all of his potential Democratic challengers, a new poll conducted Aug. 4-19 by the Democratic firm Public Poilcy Polling shows.

But the poll was not all good news for Burr. The senator's approval ratings are still stuck in the 30s, an indication that while voters are turning against Democrats, they're not yet fulling embracing their Republican senator.

The poll, which tested the Republican incumbent in hypothetical match-ups with Democrats Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, former state Sen. Cal Cunningham and attorney [Kenneth Lewis]( http://www.kennethlewisforsenate.com/kenneth.html] found that Burr has expanded his lead with registered voters against each one.

Forty-nine percent of registered voters oppose the plans they have seen for overhauling the American health care system, while 34 percent support the plans, according to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted Aug. 11-12.

The same poll said President Obama's approval rating stands at 53 percent while his disapproval is 40 percent. Although his approval has declined while his disapproval has gone up, the president still is held in higher regard than Congress, which has a 30 percent approval rating with 59 percent disapproval.

The poll also found 35 percent of people worried that they and their families would be worse off if the plans were adopted; 20 percent thought they would be better off; and 37 percent said it would not make any difference.

The poll was based on telephone interviews with 900 registered voters and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

A Research 2000/Daily Kos poll of 600 likely voters conducted Aug. 9-12 shows Republican Meg Whitman, the former CEO of eBay, and Democrat Jerry Brown, the current state attorney general and a former governor, leading their respective fields for the open 2010 governor's race in California.

In a hypothetical general election matchup between the two, Brown bested Whitman 42 percent to 36 percent, with 22 percent undecided.

Brown also led San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a hypothetical Democratic primary matchup, 29 percent to 20 percent -- but a whopping 51 percent said they were undecided.

On the Republican side, Whitman led former Rep. Tom Campbell and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner in the GOP primary: 24 percent for Whitman, 19 percent for Campbell, 9 percent for Poizner and 48 percent undecided.

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is term-limited in 2011. CQ Politics rates the governor's race Leans Democratic.

American workers are more worried about losing their jobs than at any other time in the last dozen years, according to a Gallup poll conducted Aug. 6-9.

Thirty-one percent of the workers interviewed for the poll say they are worried about being laid off in the near future, doubling the 15 percent who said they were worried a year ago, Gallup said.

The worry factor is higher among workers who did not graduate from college (36 percent) than for college graduates (22 percent), Gallup said. Forty-six percent of workers are worried their benefits may be cut, and 32 percent are worried about pay cuts.

For most of the last decade, concern about being laid off has remained steady around 20 percent but took a sharp rise in the last year.

The poll was based on telephone interviews with 528 people nationwide who are employed full or part time. It carries a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Protesters at town hall meetings who oppose plans to change the health care system have caught the public's attention and starting to win support, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Aug. 11

Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed said they pay close attention to news accounts of the protests, and 34 percent say they are more sympathetic to the arguments raised by the protesters. Those paying the most attention are most likely to agree with the protesters, the poll found.

But that doesn't mean they sympathize with the behavior of some of the protesters who seem to have checked their manners at the door.

Democratic Lt. Gov. John Garamendi leads his closest Democratic competitor by 11 percentage points in the crowded field for California’s 10th District special election, according to an Aug. 10-11 SurveyUSA poll of registered voters.

A total of 14 — five Democrats, six Republicans and three third-party candidates — qualified for the Sept. 1 election and will appear on the ballot to choose a successor to Democrat Ellen O. Tauscher, who resigned her seat to serve as undersecretary of State for arms control and international security.

Garamendi led the SurveyUSA poll with 26 percent, Democratic state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier received 15 percent, Democratic state Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan received 12 percent, Iraq War veteran Anthony Woods, a Democrat, received 5 percent.

Republican businessman David Harmer received 18 percent.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter switched parties this spring mainly because he felt he would lose to former Rep. Pat Toomey in a Republican primary.

But a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted Tuesday shows that the Republican-turned-Democratic senator would lose to Toomey by a double-digit margin if the November 2010 general election were held today.

Toomey holds a 48 percent to 36 percent lead over Specter in the survey, which also gives Toomey a 43 percent to 35 percent lead over Rep. Joe Sestak, who is Specter's chief challenger in the Democratic primary.

A Rasmussen Reports poll taken Tuesday gives Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter a 13-point lead over his chief intraparty rival, Rep. Joe Sestak.

Specter won support from 47 percent of respondents who said that they are likely to vote in the Democratic Senate primary next May. Sestak was backed by 34 percent, while 16 percent said they weren't sure about a Senate choice. "Some other candidate" was supported by 3 percent.

Democratic voters give good marks to both men -- 71 percent of respondents said they have a very favorable or somewhat favorable impression of Specter, compared with 54 percent who said the same about Sestak.

President Obama's handling of health care gives him weaker ratings than he gets on three other big areas, according to a Gallup poll conducted Aug. 6-9.

The president's approval rating on health care stands at 43 percent, while disapproval is 49 percent, Gallup said on Wednesday.

Fifty-three percent approve of his handling of education, while 30 percent disapprove; 53 percent approve of the administration's approach to foreign affairs, while 40 percent disapprove; and 48 percent approve of his handling of the economy, while 49 percent disapprove.

Obama's overall job approval rating registered at 54 percent.

The poll was based on telephone interviews with 1,010 adults nationwide and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Republican Bob McDonnell holds a 9-point edge over Democrat Creigh Deeds in the Nov. 3 race for the Virginia governorship, according to a telephone survey of 500 likely voters taken Monday.

The Rasmussen Reports poll shows McDonnell, a former state attorney general, with 47 percent, while Deeds, a state senator, has 38 percent.

Including respondents who initially indicated no preference but said they "lean" toward one candidate, 49 percent favor McDonnell and 41 percent are for Deeds.

The margin of error is 4.5 percentage points.

Rep. Jerry Moran narrowly leads his Republican House colleague Todd Tiahrt, 38 percent to 32 percent, in the 2010 GOP primary race for Kansas' open Senate seat in a SurveyUSA poll conducted Aug. 7-9, but nearly a third of voters remain undecided at this early stage in the race.

One year out from the August 2010 primary, 30 percent of likely GOP primary voters said they were undecided regarding their choice for the Republican nominee. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.

Moran led Tiahrt in SurveyUSA polls conducted in April and in June, though many respondents were undecided in those polls.

As expected, Moran and Tiahrt each prevailed in his home area: Tiahrt led Moran by 3 to 1 in southeastern Kansas, where his 4th District is located, and Moran led Tiahrt 6 to 1 in western Kansas, home to his 1st District.

Fiery town hall meetings and concern about costs are stoking opposition to President Obama and congressional Democrats' effort to overhaul the U.S. health care system, a Rasmussen Reports survey conducted Aug. 9-10 shows.

The national telephone suvey of 1,000 likely voters found public support for an overhaul falling to a new low of 42 percent. That is 5 percent lower than two weeks ago and 8 points down from six weeks ago.

It also found found 44 percent of respondents strongly oppose the effort while just 26 percent strongly favor it. Most of the stiffest resistance comes from individuals over age 65.

The survey showed a predictable partisan split, with nearly seven in 10 Democrats favoring the overhaul and an almost equal proportion of GOP voters opposed. However, 62 percent of self-described unaffiliated voters now oppose the plan, signaling further erosion among political independents.

New Jersey Gov. John Corzine continues to lag behind his Republican challenger Christopher Christie, although the margin between them has been shaved by 3 percentage points, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted Aug. 5-9.

The poll found Christie leading Corzine 51 percent to 42 percent. The same poll in July had Christie leading 53 percent to 41 percent.

Corzine, a Democrat, is facing a pair of problems with voters, who don't like the way he's doing his job and who perceive members of his party in their state as corrupt. Corzine's disapproval rating stands at 58 percent, while his approval rating is 36 percent, the Quinnipiac poll said. In July his job approval was at 33 percent, while disapproval was 60 percent.

Democrats have lost ground on the question of which party would make the country better off by controlling Congress, a poll conducted by Opinion Research Corp. July 31 to Aug. 4 for CNN.

Forty-four percent said the country would be better off if Democrats controlled Congress, a drop of 5 percentage points for Democrats from an April survey, when 49 percent favored them to run the Congress.

Republicans, though, didn't pick up any of the Democrats' lost support. The GOP held steady with 34 percent saying the country would be better off with them in charge.

The Democratic defectors instead opted for a third choice: "Neither," which rose from 11 percent to 14 percent, according to the CNN poll. T The poll was based on telephone interviews with 1,136 American adults and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

"Fear" is the operative word in consumers' attitudes toward health care overhaul, says a Rasmussen poll conducted Aug. 7-8 -- fear of losing one's current insurance, fear of a government "takeover" and not being sure of what to fear most.

The survey of 1,000 voters showed 51 percent fear the federal government more than private insurance companies; the answer was the other way around for 41 percent of those surveyed and 7 percent weren't sure.

More than half -- 53 percent -- of those with insurance said they fear the government more than insurance companies while 39 percent took the opposite view. Those without insurance said they fear the insurance companies more.

Adults under 30 fear the insurance companies more while those in their 40s are evenly divided. However, a solid majority of those over 40 fear the government more.

President Obama may be winning over the states that broke against him in the election, according to Gallup's analysis of its approval polls from the day after the inauguration through June 30.

Gallup aggregated its finding from telephone interviews with 81,022 adults, aged 18 and older, as part of its daily tracking.

The result is a picture of the states that approve of Obama's job performance the most and the least.

Recent town-hall meeting protests against a health care overhaul have raised concerns among Democrats — and they have cause for that concern, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports opinion poll, which shows 41 percent of American voters viewing  the protests favorably.

The telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters taken Aug. 5-6 found that 35 percent are against them while 23 percent are not sure what to make of them.

The good news for Democrats, if there is any, is that most of those who support the protests — 61 percent — identified themselves as Republicans or unaffiliated (48 percent) with either party. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed who identified themselves as Democrats said they have an unfavorable view of those who are critical of the overhaul efforts.

Only time will tell if Thursday evening's campaign appearance by President Obama will help, but at the moment Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds is trailing Republican candidate Bob McDonnell by eight points, according to a Research 2000/Daily Kos poll conducted Aug. 3-Aug 5.

Fifty-one percent of those surveyed by telephone said they would support McDonnell for Virginia governor if the vote were held today, compared to 43 percent for Deeds. Only six percent of those polled said they were undecided.

McDonnell also leads Deeds in overall ratings, with 57 percent of those surveyed viewing him favorably to 46 percent for Deeds.

Campaign help from President Obama hasn't helped New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine improve his chances in this year's election, according to a poll from Research 2000/Daily Kos conducted Aug. 3-5.

The poll showed Republican Chris Christie leading by eight percentage points overall and by a wider margin among older voters.

Christie, a former federal prosecutor, was preferred by 48 percent of the likely voters polled, while Corzine was the choice of 40 percent with 9 percent undecided.

The poll's margin of error was 4 percentage points.

President Obama bears the blame for increasing the size of the deficit in a Rasmussen reports survey conducted Aug. 3 and 4.

Though 71 percent of voters in the telephone survey said current policies have increased the size of the federal deficit, more than half agreed that the current economic crisis began in the George W. Bush administration.

Five percent of survey responders said Obama's policies have cut the deficit, while 10 percent said they have had no impact and 13 percent were not sure.

Though the majority of Americans still view President Obama as more capable of handling the economy and health care than Republicans, the president's margins are shrinking, according to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted July 27-Aug. 3.

The survey of 2,409 registered voter found Obama's job approval rating stands at 50 percent -- the lowest point since Inauguration Day and 7 points lower than in early July.

Forty-nine percent of respondents disapproved of the way Obama is handling the economy, and 52 percent disapproved of the way the president is handling health care. Fifty-two percent approved of the way the president handles foreign policy.

American adults have become a bit less welcoming to immigrants, according to a Gallup poll conducted July 10-12.

Sixty-one percent of Republicans, 46 percent of independents and 44 percent of Democrats surveyed said they want immigration to be decreased, according to the poll released Wednesday. Overall, 50 percent of American adults want immigration decreased.

Support for cutting back immigration rose for all political persuasions from levels a year ago and have spiked in a manner similar to sentiments following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2002, Gallup said.

Tax cuts were declared more important than new spending to overhaul the nation's health care system by voters surveyed by Rasmussen on Aug. 3 and 4.

In the telephone survey, 54 percent of respondents said tax cuts for the middle class outweigh health care overhaul spending, 34 percent disagreed and 12 percent said they were not sure.

Two new polls conclude that President Obama's comments on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. have played some role in his recent ratings decline. However, they suggest the president probably has not suffered long-term damage.

Fifty-four percent of respondents to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey conducted July 31 to Aug. 3 said they agreed Obama "acted stupidly" by commenting on the case of the African-American Harvard professor taken into custody during the investigation of a reported break-in.

However, 59 percent of the 1,136 adults surveyed said Obama's comments did not change their view of the president..

And 61 percent of respondents dsid they approve of the way Obama has generally handled race relations.

Republican Bob McDonnell has a double-digit lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds in the Nov. 3 contest for the Virginia governorship, according to a poll taken last weekend and released Tuesday.

The Public Policy Polling survey has McDonnell, a former state attorney general, leading Deeds, a state senator, by a margin of 51 percent to 37 percent.

The survey, which was taken from July 31 to Aug. 3 of 579 Virginia voters, gives McDonnell a big lead over Deeds among self-described political independents, 52 percent to 33 percent.

McDonnell has an approval rating of 54 percent and a disapproval rating of 26 percent. Deeds has a lower approval rating (43 percent) and a higher disapproval rating (32 percent).

Republican Chris Christie’s lead over Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine continues to grow in New Jersey’s governor’s race, according to a July 29-Aug. 2 poll from Monmouth University.

Christie, a former U.S. attorney, leads Corzine 45 percent to 37 percent among likely voters, according to the poll. An additional 4 percent expressed a preference for Independent Chris Daggett, a former EPA administrator, and 13 percent were undecided.

Christie’s lead among likely voters, measured at 14 percent in the most recent poll, has expanded from 8 points in last month’s Monmouth University poll. Since the previous poll was conducted July 9-14, a widespread corruption bust has pervaded state politics and has negatively reflected on the sitting governor, who is running this fall for a second term. CQ Politics changed the rating of the race from Tossup to Leans Republican in the wake of the corruption scandal.