Democrats may have waited too long to move forward with gun control legislation, resulting in a lost of public momentum. Support for stricter gun control spiked right after the Sandy Hook shooting, but since then it has dropped significantly. From CBS News:

The month long effort to blame the other side for the sequester basically ended in a draw. A new CBS News poll finds that only slightly more Americans blame Congressional Republicans than blame the Democrats for failing to reach an agreement.

While marijuana is legal for adults in Washington State and will soon be for adults in Colorado under state law, it is still technically illegal under federal law. The federal government could theoretically prosecute newly licensed marijuana retailers, growers, and even regular users in both states. When deciding how to respond the Obama administration should note that a majority of America would oppose federal involvement.

Following the approval of marijuana legalization in both Colorado and Washington State, the big question is how will the Obama administration respond given that marijuana is still illegal under federal law? If President Obama wants to respect the will of the electorate he should leave both states alone and let them set their own marijuana policy.

PPP’s polling of voters in swing states shows that a majority thought Obama had the stronger performance:

President Obama performed better in the second debate than the first, although given the low bar he set with his first performance that wasn’t hard. The instant polling shows that Obama is seen as having won the second debate but only by a small margin.

Early impressions from last night’s debate indicate Mitt Romney won it. Most pundits agree that Romney had the strong performance and the instant polling and focus groups all seem to share the opinion.

The Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan is well to the right of most Americans on the issue of abortion. Ryan believes that abortion should be illegal in all cases except if it endangers the life of the mother. Ryan believes life begins at conception, and as a result a women should be forced to carry a fetus to term even if it was the result of rape or incest. By comparison an overwhelming 75 percent of voters think abortion should be allowed at least in those cases.

According to Rep. Paul Ryan in a interview with CBS News, the Romney campaign made him provide them with significantly more than two years of tax returns before they would select him. Yet Romney thinks it is absurd for the media and regular Americans to ask to see multiple years of tax returns before making the radically more important decision of selecting who might be the next President of the United States.

Three national polls out today all confirm that the Presidential race still remains extremely close. The Fox News poll is the best for Obama, showing him with a four point lead. In the NPR poll, Obama leads Romney by just two points; but the CBS News/New York Time poll finds Romney actually ahead by a single point.