For the first time in 10 years, a majority of Americans no longer think it is the federal government's responsibility to ensure all its citizens have health insurance coverage, according to a Gallup poll taken Nov. 5-8.

The poll found that 47 percent of the respondents said health coverage was a federal responsibility and 50 percent said it was not. This represents a drop of 22 percentage points in three years for the government to take on that role, according to Gallup.

"The reason behind this shift is unknown," Gallup said. "Certainly the federal government's role in the nation's healthcare system has been widely and vigorously debated over the last several months, including much focus on the 'public option.' These data suggest that one result of the debate has been a net decrease in Americans' agreement that ensuring all Americans have healthcare coverage is an appropriate role for the federal government."

The American public is divided on what to do next about the war in Afghanistan -- send in more troops or start finding a way out, according to a Gallup poll taken Nov. 5-8.

The Obama administration is trying to reach a decision on these very issues, and the president has asked the military to give him different options than the proposal offered by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the American commander in Afghanistan who has asked for an additional 40,000 troops to stabilize the country.

Public opinion is split with 42 percent in favor of sending more troops and 44 percent saying troop strength should start coming down, Gallup said.

Republicans appear to be heading into the 2010 elections in good shape to be competitive in congressional races nationwide, according to a Gallup Poll conducted Oct. 1-4.

In the survey of 906 registered voters, 46 percent said they preferred to send a Democrat to Congress, 44 percent chose a Republican and 10 percent were undecided. It was a "generic ballot" question that did not mention the names of particular candidates.

In July, Democrats pulled 50 percent in Gallup's generic ballot test, Republications that same 44 percent and 7 percent of those polled called themselves undecided.

"Given the usual Democratic advantages in party identification among the general public, it is rare for Republicans to lead on the generic ballot among registered voters. This was the case even when Republicans were the majority congressional party from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s," Gallup said.

The favorable impression of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been on a slow decline since the election and now stands at 42 percent, a 17-percentage-point drop since last November, according to a Gallup poll taken Oct. 16-19.

Gallup doesn't point to anything Biden has done to cause this decrease in his favorable rating, and he's had company in his declining popularity. The favorable rating for President Obama has taken a slide since the inauguration from 78 percent to 55 percent, and first lady Michelle Obama's favorable rating has waned from 72 percent in March to 61 percent now.

Where Biden seems to be lagging is how his popularity compares to the president's. Obama's average favorable rating for his first year in office is 63 percent, and Biden's is 45 percent. In the two previous administrations the popularity gap between president and vice president was narrower.

A pair of new polls show the public's opinion of Congress is back in the cellar near where it began the year.

Despite what has happened with the economy, people seem to be in a reasonably good mood, according to an AP-GfK poll taken Oct. 1-5 in which 78 percent of the respondents said they were happy - 34 percent considering themselves "very happy" and 44 percent who say they're "somewhat happy."

And they like President Obama, whose approval rating for the way he's handling his job was 56 percent - about half of which came from people who strongly approved of his work as president.

Not so much for Congress, though, where the approval rating is 33 percent (just 3 percent saying they strongly approve), and the disapproval rating is 64 percent - more than half of whom say they strongly disapprove.

Adults in this country still are not sold on whether they want the government to compel changes in the way health insurance behaves and health care is delivered, according to a Gallup poll taken Oct. 1-4.

When asked how they would advise their member of Congress to vote on legislation to overhaul the health care system, 40 percent said they would ask for a vote in favor of changing the health care system, 36 percent would want their member to vote against it, and 25 percent has no opinion.

When people who leaned one way or the other on the question were added, a slim majority, 51 percent, would support overhauling the health care system, 41 percent would oppose it, and 8 percent had no opinion. Both counts - with and without leaners - showed modest shifts in favor of passage from a similar Gallup poll taken in early September.

Though the Republican Party still has a poor image among the electorate, it has narrowed the Democratic Party's longstanding advantage in political party identification in large part because of an improved showing among political independents.

That's the major finding of an analysis from the Gallup Organization, which conducted five polls of more than 5,000 adults in the third quarter of 2009.

The analysis said that 48 percent of respondents identified as Democrats and 42 percent as Republicans -- a six-point edge that is the Democrats' smallest advantage since early 2005, when President George W. Bush began his second term.

Throughout 2006, 2007 and 2008, when the Republican Party's image suffered as a result of Bush's unpopularity, the Democrats opened up a double-digit advantage in party identification.

According to Gallup's most recent polling, 35 percent of respondents said they are Democrats and another 13 percent described themselves as independents who "lean" Democratic.

Just 27 percent of respondents said they are Republicans, but the 15 percent share of political independents who lean Republican is the highest such figure in at least four years.

In each of the 18 previous quarters, there were more Democratic-leaning independents than Republican-leaning independents.

Most American adults think providing health insurance coverage for themselves and their families is a matter of personal responsibility, rather than a service that should be performed by the government, according to a Gallup poll taken Sept. 11-13.

Sixty-one percent of respondents said it should be a matter of personal responsibility, and 37 percent said it should be the responsibility of the federal government. Broken down by political party, Republicans (89 percent to 10 percent) and independents (64 percent to 34 percent) said it is a personal matter, but Democrats (62 percent to 35 percent) think the federal government is primarily responsible.

Gallup noted that other polls have shown differing sentiment, but the results depend on how the question is framed.

The approval chart for Democrats in Congress looks like a ball that rolled off a ledge, but they can cling to a couple of facts they might take as good news: Things have been worse for them before, and as bad as things are now, the Republicans are suffering even more, according to a Gallup poll taken Aug. 31-Sept. 2.

Part of the reason approval for Republicans in Congress is in the tank is that Republicans'support for their own kind has dropped from 52 percent to 39 percent, and one reason their approval rating isn't worse is that Democrats' approval for Republicans in Congress has risen from 9 percent last December to 20 percent in mid-September, Gallup said.

Public approval of the job Congress does as a whole is at 31 percent and has held steady in the low-30 percent range since June, Gallup said.

U.S. adults have serious misgivings about how President Obama is handling the government's ballooning budget deficit, with 58 percent saying they disapprove and 38 percent saying they approve, according to a Gallup poll taken Sept. 11-13.

The disapproval rating for the president is higher than his approval rating on two other issues, healthcare policy (52 percent to 43 percent) and the economy (51 percent to 46 percent), Gallup said.

On four other issues, his approval rating is higher than disapproval: