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Marble Cake and moot

There’s an elegantly unadorned paragraph nestled in Time magazine’s announcement today of its “100 most influential” world figures: The winner of the online ballot version of its list, it says, “is 4chan.org founder moot, also known as Christopher Poole, with...

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April 30, 2009 in International Polls | Permalink | User Comments (5)

Joe Biden: Popular, but he's no Obama

(This is one of two items I'm filing this morning; see the other, on views of U.S. relations with Cuba, here.) If part of Joe Biden’s job is to stay in the boss’ shadow, he’s doing fine. Fifty-seven percent of...

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April 27, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (13)

Broad Backing for Cuba Relations

President Obama’s overtures to Cuba are one of the ways he’s hit the zeitgeist in his first 100 days: Six in 10 Americans approve of the way he’s handling U.S. relations with the island nation, and most favor far more...

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April 27, 2009 in President Obama | Permalink | User Comments (5)

Bird Strikes: The Feathers Fly

After a bit of administrative arm-wrestling the Federal Aviation Administration is releasing numbers today on reported bird strikes - the sort of incident that plunked US Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson River in January. The concern's obviously a real...

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April 24, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (4)

Obama, Cheney and the Politics of Torture

Dick Cheney’s pushback on torture this week is well-calibrated: It’s an issue on which public sentiment is somewhat more equivocal than President Obama’s own view. While most people oppose torture, that view is short of monolithic – and opposition softens...

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April 23, 2009 in National Security/Terrorism, President Obama | Permalink | User Comments (34)

Stress and the Economy

While we don’t know its cause, the reported suicide of Freddie Mac’s CFO underscores the level of economic-related stress Americans are experiencing – a serious public health concern. Stress not only is running high, it’s directly related to specific problems:...

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April 22, 2009 in Economy | Permalink | User Comments (4)

Behind the Plus or Minus

A bunch of respectable news outlets yesterday published reports on an academic survey claiming to measure “video-game addiction” among youngsters. “This study’s primary strength,” the author reported, “is that it is nationally representative within 3%.” I beg to differ. I’ve...

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April 21, 2009 in Problem Polls | Permalink | User Comments (14)

Of Taxes and Tea

Today’s “taxpayer tea parties” may reinforce a sense of purpose among conservative activists – but at the moment they’re unlikely to resonate beyond. Recent polling shows little in the way of broad concern about taxes in general or Barack Obama’s...

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April 15, 2009 in Partisanship/Party ID, President Obama | Permalink | User Comments (70)

Obama, the Economy... and Thin Ice

President Obama may be encouraged enough by some rising measures of consumer confidence to celebrate those improvements in his economic speech today. It’s a place where he’d best tread lightly. The challenges cut both to measurement and politics. In the...

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April 14, 2009 in Economy, President Obama | Permalink | User Comments (11)

Pot smokers vs. President Obama: Let's Vote

Barack Obama issued a proclamation today celebrating the drug education program D.A.R.E., prompting the question of whether he’s trying to put some distance between his administration and the issue of legalizing marijuana. If so, not a bad idea, given the...

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April 8, 2009 in President Obama, Problem Polls | Permalink | User Comments (44)