An astonishing 71.3% of college freshmen support marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples, according to UCLA’s Freshman Survey, an annual national survey of first-year students entering four-year colleges and universities. There were large increases in support across the board.

The vote on the amendment is May 8, 2012, so there is not a lot of time to educate voters around the state about just how extreme this ballot initiative is. Public Policy Polling’s latest data shows just how confused many North Carolinians are about the scope of the effect if this is passed. Most North Carolinians are fair-minded and want legal recognition for same-sex relationships…but some of these voters are still in favor of the amendment.

Michael Gerson used to work for George W. Bush, so undoubtedly, he has Obama’s best interests in mind when advises him to distance himself from the OWS movement. And if anyone knows what Americans really think, it’s a former Bush administration official.

Herman Cain leads the Republican Presidential field in South Carolina and is tied for first in Florida according to two new NBC News-Marist polls out today. In South Carolina, “the first in the South” primary, Cain has a 4 point lead over Romney among likely primary voters.

With Willard looking more inevitable every day, this is especially bad news for the White House. The Everest-size electoral challenge facing President Obama is encapsulated in a single question in the latest Washington Post-Bloomberg News poll: Would the economy be better or worse if a Republican were elected president in 2012? [...] …the division, even [...]

While President Obama’s job approval numbers had being trending steadily downward since the May bump following the killing of Osama Bin Laden, his job approval numbers appear to have stabilized over the past two months. Every day since August 9th Obama’s job approval number has fallen between 43-38 percent, and his disapproval number has been between 48-54 percent in Gallup daily tracking poll.

Just shy of a majority of registered voters, 49 percent, say they definitely plan to vote against Barack Obama in 2012, but just 36 percent say they definitely plan to vote for him, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.

Every time I look at the field of Republican candidates for president, I find myself distinctly… underwhelmed. Apparently it’s not just me:

New York Republicans like Andrew Cuomo more than New York Democrats – is anyone surprised?

It was only a matter of time before people who weren’t paying attention figured out that the Teabaggers were just repackaged Bush/Cheney Republicans, and that time has come.