Gallup

As Politico reported Tuesday, former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel was paid $120,000 in 2012 to work as a "senior adviser" to Gallup, the Omaha-based polling and research firm. Gallup won't explain what services or expertise Hagel actually provided.

While the mainstream press routinely reports that President Obama is riding high and that Republicans are reeling, Gallup tells a rather different story about the popularity of our newly reelected president.  Across Gallup’s entire history of presidential job-approval polling — dating back to 1945 — every president but one has had a higher job-approval rating in the January following his reelection than Obama has.  No president has had a lower rating than Obama’s.

On Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume highlighted Mitt Romney’s clear advantage in Gallup, Rasmussen, and other national polling, and said, “Now…if those polls are generally correct, it is difficult to imagine that Ohio would be all that different.  Ohio has pretty closely tracked the national outcome…since about 1960.”

Gallup's week-long tracking poll of likely voters finds that Mitt Romney is leading Barack Obama by 6 percentage points, 51-45.

Among registered voters, the lead is more narrow. Romney has 48 percent of registered voters, while Obama receives 46 percent.

The trend line of voters, especially likely voters, clearly is in Romney's direction:

The latest polling from USA Today/Gallup shows Mitt Romney leading President Obama by 4 percentage points — 50 to 46 percent — among likely voters in swing states.  USA Today writes, “As the presidential campaign heads into its final weeks, the survey of voters in 12 crucial swing states finds female voters much more engaged in the election and increasingly concerned about the deficit and debt issues that favor Romney.”

Gallup writes that Mitt Romney’s debate performance was the most dominant in the history of its polling on presidential debates, and that performance has now vaulted him into a share of the lead in the presidential race.

A new poll from Gallup looks at how many 2008 voters say they will switch parties in the presidential race. According to the poll, more Americans who voted for Barack Obama will be voting for Mitt Romney than John McCain voters will switch to vote for Obama. Here are Gallup's results:

Yesterday, Obama senior campaign adviser David Axelrod claimed that the campaign wasn't worried about the damage being done by the president's "you didn't build that" remarks. Today, Gallup notes the following:

A new index from Gallup shows America's confidence in the economy is at its lowest level since January of this year. Confidence is higher than it was throughout 2011, but the spike this year appears to be on a downward trend:

Gallup also notes that the drop in confidence is driven mostly by self-described Democrats:

Forty-six percent of Americans believe the Supreme Court's decision to uphold Obamcare will hurt the economy, according to a new Gallup poll.  Only 37 percent believe the health care overhaul will help the economy.

Over the weekend, Mark Blumenthal of the Huffington Post published a lengthy review of the Gallup poll’s methodology. It is a technical read, but I encourage you to give it a careful look.

Hillary Clinton's favorability with the American people remains near an all-time high, according to Gallup. Sixty-six percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Secretary of State, while only 23 percent view Clinton unfavorably, tied for a record low.