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5 political numbers to watch
Steven Shepard on the political data that matters.
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Only 19 percent of voters approve of Gov. Chris Christie's job performance, and 76 percent disapprove. | AP Photo
5 numbers that mattered this week
By STEVEN SHEPARD
Continuing our POLITICO feature, where we dig into the latest polls and loop in other data streams to tell the story of how Americans are reacting to President Donald Trump and the upheaval he is bringing to Washington. Here are five numbers that mattered this week:
Polling on issues is difficult in its own right, but the compressed timeline between introduction of the Republican health care bill and the expected House vote next week has clouded whether the public supports or opposes the GOP's efforts to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law.
Four new polls were released this week — all conducted in the days following the first public release of the bill. And the results vary anywhere between moderate support and majority opposition.
The most positive poll for President Donald Trump and House Republicans was a POLITICO/Morning Consult survey, in which 46 percent of voters said they approved of the bill, compared to only 35 percent who disapproved.
But contrast that with polls from Fox News, SurveyMonkey and the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling — all of which show the proposal is far more unpopular than popular.
There's one key difference between the polls in each camp: While Fox News, SurveyMonkey and PPP all characterized the bill as introduced by Republicans, the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll did not.
"There's no right or wrong way to describe the proposed healthcare bill, but including the word 'Republican' when describing it should reduce overall approval because it is a signal for Democrats and Independents and because it makes the proposal appear partisan," said Kyle Dropp, Morning Consult's co-founder and chief research officer.
Averaging the polls together, support for the bill (37 percent) lags opposition (48 percent) by an 11-point margin.
But perhaps more instructively will be the trendlines. The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, for example, was conducted prior to the release of a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office — which found that the bill, if enacted, would cut into the federal deficit but also lead to 24 million fewer Americans with health insurance.
Look to see if the debate over the bill changes perceptions of the bill over the next week, as House GOP leadership plans to bring it to the floor for a vote.
Neil Gorsuch's confirmation hearings begin next week, and the lack of interest might suggest a relatively smooth path to the Supreme Court. That may very well be true: There are few signs Democrats are planning to mount the kind of opposition that could lead Republicans to change Senate rules to approve Supreme Court justices with only a simple majority.
The polling, however, shows voters relatively divided on Gorsuch's confirmation. The Fox News survey this week shows 45 percent of voters would choose to confirm Gorsuch, but another 39 percent would not vote for Gorsuch's confirmation. The remaining 16 percent are undecided.
The party breakdown suggests Republicans are more united: 80 percent of GOP voters would vote for Gorsuch, while 66 percent of Democrats would oppose him.
Fox didn't ask respondents about the intensity of their support or opposition, and previous surveys have showed greater emphasis on the Supreme Court for Republicans.
Trump's controversial, revised executive order on immigration met the same fate in the courts as his first attempt to ban immigrants and visitors from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering the country.
And while Trump insists the new ban is "watered down" from his first attempt, the public opposition to it hasn't changed.
A majority of voters, 54 percent, disapprove of the order, according to the Fox News poll this week. Just 43 percent approve.
A month prior, another Fox News poll showed 52 percent disapproved of the first order, while 46 percent approved.
As with health care, the data diverge depending on the poll. The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll showed 56 percent approving of the order, with only 33 percent disapproving. But like the Fox News poll, that's virtually unchanged from perceptions of the first order last month — suggesting that the administration's changes were designed to placate the judicial branch, not those Americans upset by the order.
Chris Christie is in the final year of his second term as New Jersey governor, but voters there have seen about enough.
A Quinnipiac University poll released this week showed only 19 percent of voters approve of Christie's job performance, and 76 percent disapprove. Even among Republicans, Christie's approval rating is marginally underwater (47 percent approve, and 48 percent disapprove).
It's a stunning fall for a once-popular blue-state GOP governor reelected three-and-a-half years ago with more than 60 percent of the vote. Since then, however, Christie has been embroiled in the "Bridgegate" scandal – and many voters had negative perceptions of his unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination and his endorsement of Trump.
Both Christie and Trump — with just a 34-percent approval rating in the poll — are both poised to be millstones around the neck of Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, the likely GOP gubernatorial candidate. The poll shows Democrat Phil Murphy 22 points ahead of Guadagno in a potential matchup despite lower name-ID than the Republican.
Christie's 19-percent score in the latest Quinnipiac poll is actually a marginal improvement from the previous survey, conducted in January. In that poll, his approval rating was just 17 percent.
Winter — defined by meteorologists as the months of December, January and February — was significantly warmer than usual across much of the country. And while a majority of Americans noticed, their political leanings appear to have influenced how they perceived the past season's temperatures.
Overall, 64 percent felt this winter was warmer than usual, according to a Gallup poll out this week. The results were mostly uniform by party: 68 percent of Democrats, 61 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of independents said it was a warm winter. (The poll was conducted March 1-5, prior to the most recent cold snap in the Eastern U.S.)
But when asked whether those warm temperatures were the result of longer-term climate change, or just natural variations, Americans split sharply by party. More than three-quarters of Democrats who said it was a warm winter thought it was due to climate change, but fewer than a quarter of warm-winter Republicans agreed, with most saying it was due to natural variations.
That's consistent with other results from the survey, which show Democrats more concerned about climate change than at any point since Gallup began tracking the issue in 2000. And while concern over climate change rose 9 points among Democrats and 11 points among independents over the past year, it was unchanged among Republicans.
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Fifty-five percent of those surveyed approve of how President Donald Trump is handling the economy. | Getty
The jobs report for February — the first full month of President Donald Trump's administration — showed continuing long-term employment growth.
But it also underscored a reality of Trump's tenuous standing with the American public: Despite overall approval ratings far worse than other incoming presidents, Americans still think Trump will do a good job handling the nation's economy.
Trump's overall approval rating was underwater — 45 percent approve, 52 percent disapprove — in a CNN/ORC poll out this week. But 55 percent of those surveyed approved of how Trump is handling the economy, compared to only 41 percent who disapproved.
The president earned some of his worst marks in many of the topic areas that have dominated his first seven weeks in office: immigration (55 percent disapprove), foreign affairs (54 percent) and health care policy (53 percent). But many still think the real-estate mogul-turned-politician is doing a good job in dealing with the economy, even prior to the new jobs report.
Trump's presidency has elicited strong feelings on both sides of the political divide, but nearly one-in-three Americans are far less strident.
Charles Franklin, who runs the Marquette Law School poll in Wisconsin, published an analysis of data from SurveyMonkey that explored those Americans with shakier perceptions of Trump.
Not surprisingly, they are less engaged than most Americans: 45 percent of adult Americans who aren't registered to vote have more middling opinions of Trump's performance, compared to 27 percent of voters.
But perhaps most interesting is the partisan difference: Republicans are significantly more likely to have more moderate feelings about Trump than Democrats, while independents are the most likely. That suggests — while Trump's approval ratings have been fairly steady thus far — any elasticity will come from Republicans and independents.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remains as unpopular as she was on Election Day — even as Trump, whom she outpaced in the popular vote last November, has gotten a modest post-victory bump.
Only 35 percent of voters surveyed in a Suffolk University/USA Today poll this week had a favorable opinion of Clinton, far fewer than the 55 percent who viewed her unfavorably. That's worse than Trump's favorable rating: 45 percent, versus 47 percent unfavorable.
The overwhelming majority of Republicans had an unfavorable view of Clinton — 93 percent — but only 74 percent of Democrats viewed her favorably. And independent voters had a resoundingly negative view of Clinton: Only 25 viewed her favorably, and 61 percent unfavorably.
The president has referred to some elements of the news media as enemies of the American people — and the press isn't getting much support from those people.
A majority of voters, 53 percent, said in a Quinnipiac University poll this week that they disapprove of how the media have covered Trump, with only 41 percent approving.
Unsurprisingly, views of the media's performance during Trump's administration cuts along the same partisan and cultural cleavages exposed during last year's presidential campaign and into the new administration. Nine-in-10 Republicans disapprove of the media's coverage of Trump, but only 21 percent of Democrats agree.
Most strikingly, white voters with college degrees — well represented in political media circles — are split, with 45 percent approving, and 49 percent disapproving. But among white voters without college degrees, only 27 percent approve of the media's performance, while 71 percent disapprove.
Television advertising in politics isn't dead yet: Campaigns and outside groups spent $2.8 billion in the run-up to last year's elections, according to a new Wesleyan University study published this week. That total includes an estimated $845 million on the presidential race, and about $1 billion combined on Senate and House races across the country.
But those totals are considerably less than the $4.4 billion estimated at the start of the cycle. The main driver of the decline? The presidential race; the number of ads aired in the presidential race — a little over a million — was actually fewer than 2012.
The main driver of that was Trump, who drew criticism for an unconventional TV-ad strategy that included a larger investment in digital advertising. Trump aired 121,000 ads, according to the study, which analyzed Kantar Media/CMAG data. That was far fewer than Clinton's 402,000 ads.
If Trump seeks a second term in 2020, it's likely he'd follow a similar playbook, relying less on advertising on conventional television. The question is whether any of his rivals will follow, signaling a real shift in how campaigns allocate most of their financial resources to reach voters.
A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll last month found 55 percent of registered voters had a favorable opinion of former President Barack Obama. | Getty
President Donald Trump's latest Twitter target — his predecessor in the White House — is more popular than he is.
A POLITICO/Morning Consult poll last month found 55 percent of registered voters had a favorable opinion of former President Barack Obama, greater than the 42 percent who viewed Obama unfavorably.
Obama's average favorable rating, according to HuffPost Pollster, is 57 percent, and his unfavorable rating is 39 percent.
Compare that with Trump: This week's POLITICO/Morning Consult poll pegged the president's favorable rating at 49 percent, with a 46-percent unfavorable rating.
But that's actually much better than his average ratings, according to HuffPost Pollster, which has Trump at 42 percent favorable and 51 percent unfavorable.
Trump on Saturday morning — in a number of tweets unsupported by public evidence — accused Obama and his administration of tapping his communications at his Midtown Manhattan skyscraper. "How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process," Trump tweeted. "This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!"
Trump earned high marks from pundits for his joint address to Congress earlier this week, but that didn't extend to the American public at large.
Gallup on Saturday released its first tracking poll conducted entirely after Trump's speech. In the poll, conducted Wednesday through Friday, 43 percent of Americans approved of Trump's job performance, and 51 percent disapproved.
It's virtually unchanged from the three days prior: In interviews conducted Sunday through Tuesday, an identical 43 percent approved of Trump, and 52 percent disapproved.
It is unclear whether the speech failed to move the needle on Americans' perceptions of Trump, or if more-recent stories of Trump associates' contact with Russian officials during the campaign have undermined any polling bounce he may have gotten from his performance.
But either way, there's no initial indication that Trump is in better shape with the American people than he was before he traveled to Capitol Hill.
Trump has chafed at times over the first six weeks of his presidency at what he calls obstruction by Senate Democrats in filling his Cabinet and improper interference by federal courts in striking down his ban on travelers from several predominately Muslim countries.
But Americans, asked last month by the Pew Research Center to weigh the balance between the three branches of government, lean strongly against granting more power to the executive.
More than three-in-four respondents, 77 percent, say "it would be too risky to give U.S. presidents more power to deal directly with many of the country's problems. Only 17 percent say "problems could be dealt with more effectively if presidents didn't have to worry so much about Congress or the courts."
Pew also asked this question last August — and while the overall results were similar, this week's Pew report notes the parties have realigned. In August, 82 percent of Republicans and 66 percent of Democrats thought it was too risky to give presidents more power. But now, only 65 percent of Republicans — compared to 87 percent of Democrats – say this.
The disparity in poll results for the Trump administration's immigration ban, shelved by federal judges, has clouded the extent to which the public actually supports Trump's attempts to stop individuals from some predominately Muslim countries from entering the U.S.
So Morning Consult, in cooperation with the data-journalism site FiveThirtyEight, created 96 separate questions to ask about the travel ban. Some described the nations affected as mostly Muslim, others mentioned the countries have been linked to terrorism and still others didn't characterize the nations at all.
Some described it as a temporary ban, while other questions didn't. Some questions specified that the ban impacted even those with green cards or valid visas, while others didn't make that distinction.
The results? Generally, there was less support for a ban that also impacted visa or green-card holders. But neither characterizing the countries affected or describing it as a temporary measure moved the needle.
The permanent campaign officially began again in earnest this week.
Trump's Cabinet choices have created a number of vacancies in Congress – but none gives Democrats hope, or worries Republicans, like the race to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in his suburban Atlanta House seat.
Both parties officially joined the fray this week. Democrat Jon Ossoff launched his first TV ads this week and is set to spend at least $475,000 through March 13.
But the Congressional Leadership Fund, a group linked to House GOP leadership, is already attacking Ossoff as part of what it bills as a $1.1-million buy between now and the April 18 primary. That includes $206,000 between now and March 13.
One Republican candidate, Dan Moody, is spending $301,000 over that time in TV ads.
Price's district has long been safe Republican territory, and Price was reelected last November with 62 percent of the vote. But the presidential race was far closer, with Trump defeating Hillary Clinton only narrowly.
Democrats are hoping that skepticism of Trump will allow the party to make an argument voters used to sending Price to Washington should instead pick a more forceful Trump critic.
Forty-seven percent of Democratic voters say they're paying "some" or "a lot" of attention to the DNC chair involving Rep. Keith Ellison. | Getty
Democratic officials are gathering in Atlanta this weekend to choose a new party chairperson, and roughly half of their voters are paying attention.
According to this week's POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, only 16 percent of self-identified Democratic voters say they are paying "a lot" of attention to the DNC chair race. But another 31 percent say they are paying "some" attention.
That means a combined majority of Democratic voters are paying either not much attention (32 percent) or no attention at all (21 percent) to the DNC chair election. But that still represents a great deal of attention for a once-obscure aspect of politics: how the out-of-power party chooses its leader.
There isn't comparable polling of Republicans in 2009 (Michael Steele's election) or 2011 (Reince Priebus), or Democrats in 2005 (Howard Dean). But at least for some Democratic voters, the intensity of the 2016 election hasn't faded in the new year.
While the new DNC chair faces a daunting task — rebuilding the party's electoral infrastructure while also serving as an effective public spokesperson and fundraiser — Democrats' actual opposition to President Donald Trump's agenda will mainly come from its congressional leaders.
Two new polls this week sketched out what rank-and-file Democrats across the country are seeking from congressional Democrats. According to a Pew Research Center survey, far more Democrats are more concerned the party won't do enough to oppose Trump in Congress (72 percent) than that Democrats will go too far in blocking Trump (20 percent).
But that doesn't mean Democrats want the party to block Trump at every turn. A new CBS News poll this week found more Democrats want the party's congressional representatives to "try to work with … Trump and the Republicans in order to get things done" (52 percent) than want them to "stick to their positions even if it means not getting as much done" (42 percent).
Congressional Democrats will get their first real confrontation with Trump next week, when the new president heads to Capitol Hill to address a joint session of Congress for the first time.
The latest obstacle to a clean GOP effort to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law? An avalanche of new polling showing public perceptions of the law improving in recent weeks.
There was the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll (45 percent approve/45 percent disapprove), the Pew Research Center survey (54 percent approve/43 percent disapprove) and the CBS News poll (46 percent approve/49 percent disapprove) — each of which have showed an uptick in support over the past few months. On Thursday, a Quinnipiac University poll found 54 percent of voters don't want Trump to support efforts to repeal the law.
On Friday, the Kaiser Family Foundation released its monthly health tracking poll, with nearly seven years' worth of trendlines, dating back to when the law was enacted in the spring of 2010. The last time the Affordable Care Act's net favorability — 48 percent favorable, versus 42 percent unfavorable in the current poll — was better than +6 was in September 2010, only six months after then-President Barack Obama signed it into law.
But despite what members of Congress may be seeing at their town-hall meetings — or on television, if they aren't hosting town halls — the intensity gap on the law still favors its opponents. More respondents said they had a very unfavorable view of Obamacare (27 percent) than had a very favorable opinion (20 percent).
Trump's voters chose him last fall because they wanted change. According to the national exit poll, a 39-percent plurality of voters said the ability to bring change was the most important attribute for a candidate — and those voters went for Trump overwhelmingly, 82 percent to 14 percent for Hillary Clinton.
But while voters think Trump is bringing change, more think it's moving the U.S. in the wrong direction. Two new polls this week show more voters think Trump's change is the wrong kind for the country than think he is moving things in the right direction.
A Quinnipiac University poll this week shows 45 percent of voters think Trump is bringing the wrong kind of change, more than the 38 percent who think he is bringing the right kind of change. Only 14 percent think Trump isn't bringing much change to the country.
Similarly, a McClatchy-Marist poll shows 40 percent of voters describe the direction in which Trump is moving the country as change for the better, fewer than the 44 percent who say it's change of the worse. Just 13 percent of voters think Trump isn't bringing real change.
Trump might be starting his presidency with the lowest approval ratings in modern history, but voters are still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on one important subject: the economy.
The president's approval ratings were well underwater in this week's Quinnipiac University (38 percent approve/55 percent disapprove) and McClatchy-Marist (41 percent approve/49 percent disapprove) polls.
But both surveys show more support for Trump on the economy. In the Quinnipiac poll, 47 percent of voters approve of the way he is handling the economy, while only 41 percent disapprove. In the Marist poll, 45 percent approve of how Trump is handling the economy, and 43 percent disapprove.
Trump's business experience was a major part of his appeal as a candidate — and despite a rocky start on other issues, voters still expect him to improve the economy. According to the CBS News poll, 59 percent are "very" or "somewhat" confident Trump's policies will create jobs.
POLITICO/Morning Consult poll
More Americans, 45 percent, are most bothered by the alleged contacts between President Donald Trump's orbit and Russia than the 32 percent who cited the leaks. | Getty
In a press conference full of extraordinary and norm-busting moments, President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested the media are suppressing poll results that show a majority approves of his job performance.
"A new Rasmussen poll, in fact — because the people get it — much of the media doesn't get it. They actually get it, but they don't write it. Let's put it that way," Trump rambled. "But a new Rasmussen poll just came out just a very short while ago, and it has our approval rating at 55 percent and going up."
So let's write it.
The president is correct. The Rasmussen Reports daily presidential-approval tracking poll — which updates on weekday mornings — does show Trump at 55-percent approval. It also shows 45 percent disapprove of Trump's performance. By totaling 100 percent, the results suggest the pollster doesn't include respondents who don't have an opinion about the president thus far.
But Rasmussen is, thus far, an outlier when it comes to ratings of Trump's job performance. According to HuffPost Pollster, Trump's average job-approval rating is 45 percent, with a slight, 51-percent majority disapproving.
And of the 13 individual pollsters that have produced a Trump approval rating thus far, Rasmussen is the only one ever to show Trump cracking the 50-percent approval mark. Some pollsters, like Gallup (38 percent approval in the latest daily tracking poll) and Pew Research Center (39 percent), show far more negative views of Trump as president.
A number of factors could be at play here: There's Rasmussen's persistent Republican lean, flagged by observers for nearly a decade. Rasmussen also conducts its surveys using automated technology — and, generally, polls without a live interviewer have been more favorable toward the president.
There's another possible factor: the universe of people Rasmussen is surveying. Rasmussen's polls are conducted among likely voters — even though the next presidential election is more than three-and-a-half years away. By comparison, Gallup and Pew polls are conducted among all adults, and polls from POLITICO/Morning Consult and Fox News are among all self-identified registered voters.
As a group, registered voters are whiter and older than the overall populace — and likely voters are even whiter and older than the overall pool of registered voters. That doesn't explain the entire disparity between the latest approval ratings from Gallup (38 percent approve/56 percent disapprove) and Rasmussen (55 percent approve/45 percent disapprove), but the basic context — what is each poll trying to measure — is essential.
Trump's first four weeks in the White House have more Americans lining up along their partisan barricades than any new president in modern history.
Despite his short tenure, fully three-in-four Americans either "strongly" approves or disapproves of Trump's job performance, according to a new Pew Research Center poll out this week.
That intensity tilts against Trump: 46 percent of Americans strongly disapprove of Trump's job performance, while only 29 percent strongly approve.
The Pew survey, like Gallup's daily tracking poll, is more negative toward Trump than some other polls. But even in the polls that show voters more evenly divided on Trump, those who strongly disapprove of his job performance outnumber those who approve with equal strength. A Fox News poll out earlier this week showed roughly equal percentages of voters who approve (48 percent) and disapprove (47 percent) of Trump's job performance — but the 41-percent share that strongly disapproves is larger than the 35 percent who strongly approve.
Both the Pew and Fox surveys show the same divides that existed during the campaign: race and educational attainment. In the Pew poll, 46-percent of whites without a college degree strongly approve of Trump's job performance, greater than the 32 percent who strongly disapprove. But 55 percent of whites with a college degree strongly disapprove.
The Fox poll is similar, though more positive toward Trump: 51 percent of non-college whites strongly approve of Trump, but 44 percent of whites with a college degree strongly disapprove.
Despite that polarization, a quarter of Americans are in the middle, including some who supported Trump in last year's election. That includes a slice of the public Democratic pollster Margie Omero is calling "Trump Regretters" — a roughly 11-percent share of the general population.
This group doesn't only consist of Trump voters who now say they wouldn't support him again — it also includes formerly unenthusiastic Clinton voters and those who didn't cast ballots last fall but would now vote against Trump.
These "Trump Regretters" are down on the early weeks Trump's presidency, according to a PSB Research survey and memo prepared by Omero. Fifty-eight percent of them think Trump is "going too far" — that is, farther than they expected — and 49 percent believe he's causing more "serious harm" to the country than they expected. Six-in-10 think he's unifying the U.S. less than they expected, and 54 percent think he's surrounding himself with fewer of the "best people" he promised would comprise his team.
Democrats will be looking to recruit these "Trump Regretters" to join their ranks in federal, state and local elections over the next two years. The Cook Political Report's Amy Walter highlighted results from other surveys earlier this week pointing to voters who see both good and bad in Trump — and how the president can either keep them in the fold or lose them in the coming months.
A SurveyMonkey poll released Friday posed the question: "What bothers you more: alleged contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence officials, or news media leaks from U.S. intelligence agencies about contacts by the Trump campaign?"
The verdict? More Americans, 45 percent, are most bothered by the alleged contacts between Trump's orbit and Russia than the 32 percent who cited the leaks. Another 21 percent say they aren't bothered by either, however.
The results break sharply along partisan lines: 79 percent of Democrats are more bothered by the alleged Russian contacts, but only 12 percent of Republicans are.
Other results from the survey follow a similar pattern but tilt toward skepticism of Trump's position. Eighty-four percent of Democrats favor a congressional investigation into claims that Russia attempted to disrupt the U.S. elections last year, as do 41 percent of Republicans. And even 48 percent of Republicans favor a congressional investigation into the events leading to National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's resignation this week.
Former Rep. Tom Perriello's entry into the Virginia gubernatorial race was viewed as a shot at the commonwealth's Democratic establishment, which had lined up behind Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam as its standard-bearer.
But Perriello doesn't entirely fit the profile of an insurgent candidate, and Northam doesn't entirely fit the profile of an establishment candidate. Despite being elected statewide in 2013, Northam had little name-identification among the party's voters and little built-in support in the June 13 primary.
A Quinnipiac University poll out this week shows Northam and Perriello deadlocked at 19 percent, with 61 percent undecided. Neither is well-known, but Perriello, out of office after his one term in the House concluded six years ago, has higher name-ID than Northam. Fifty-six percent of Democratic voters haven't heard enough about Perriello to form an opinion, fewer than the 64 percent who don't know enough about Northam.
Virginia's Democratic establishment may yet rally around Northam and help him win a primary once viewed as a walkover, but first they'll need to introduce him to voters.
Tom Perriello
Twenty nine percent of Americans think leaders of other nations respect President Donald Trump. | AP Photo
The first three weeks of Donald Trump's presidency have been dominated by executive actions — not all of them popular.
A Quinnipiac University poll out on Thursday shows the underpinnings of even some of his least controversial executive orders are viewed negatively.
Only 39 percent of voters said Trump should remove regulations on businesses and corporations, compared to 49 percent who don't think Trump should do that. Just 29 percent thought Trump should remove regulations designed to combat climate change.
Just 38 percent of voters wanted Trump to build a wall along the border with Mexico, and 40 percent support restarting the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.
Voters were divided on whether Trump should support efforts to repeal the 2010 health care law: 46 percent said he should, but half said he shouldn't.
"#PresidentBannon" is breaking through.
A large majority of Democrats, 69 percent, have an unfavorable opinion of Steve Bannon, Trump's chief strategist in the White House, according to the Quinnipiac University poll released this week. And 47 percent of independents share that unfavorable view.
But the vast majority of Republican voters, 65 percent, say they don't have an opinion of the once-obscure former Breitbart executive. Twenty-nine percent of GOP voters view Bannon favorably, and 6 percent have an unfavorable opinion.
Bannon isn't the first White House aide to achieve public notoriety. Gallup tracked then-Bush political adviser Karl Rove's favorable rating multiple times between 2005 and 2007, finding more Americans viewed Rove unfavorably than favorably at each time. Rove's unfavorable rating peaked at 50 percent in late April 2006, higher than the 41 percent overall unfavorable rating for Bannon among all voters.
But Gallup interviewers identified Rove as a presidential adviser when they asked Americans about him. Quinnipiac did not provide a job title for Bannon — meaning his mostly negative name recognition is more organic.
Trump's interactions with foreign leaders have reportedly created headaches for his administration, and most Americans feel Trump is disrespected around the world.
Only 29 percent of Americans think leaders of other countries have respect for Trump, according to a Gallup poll out Friday. More than two-thirds, 67 percent, think international leaders don't have much respect for Trump.
That's far below where other recent presidents have started. In February 2009, 67 percent thought leaders respected then-President Barack Obama, and 49 percent thought leaders had respect for George W. Bush two weeks into his presidency.
But foreign-policy challenges can take a toll on presidents. In early 2016, the percentage who thought foreign leaders respected Obama was just 45 percent.
A new Pew Research Center study underscores the changing landscape of online news.
The study was conducted last year by pinging respondents more than two dozen times over the course of a week and asking them if they had consumed news online in the past two hours.
Among those who had seen news online in the past two hours, 36 percent said it came from a news organization's website or application. But just as many, 35 percent, said it came from social media.
Rates were lower for news through search engines (20 percent); emails, texts and alerts from news organizations (15 percent); and emails and texts from friends and family (7 percent).
Even combining the rates from news websites and alerts, only half of online news consumers were getting the story from news organizations.
Every new administration raids the legislative branch for its Cabinet, but Trump has broken up the longest-serving delegation pair in the Senate.
Jeff Sessions' resignation this week to become attorney general ended a more-than-20-year run for Sessions and fellow Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, which was the longest active streak in the Senate, according to the University of Minnesota's "Smart Politics" blog. Sessions and Shelby became the top pair of senators after Sen. Barbara Boxer's retirement ended a 24-year run for Boxer and fellow California Democrat Dianne Feinstein.
Sessions was promptly replaced in the Senate on Thursday by Luther Strange, who intends to seek a full term in next year's elections.
The new leaders are Washington state's two Democratic senators: Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, who have been a pair since Cantwell joined the Senate after the 2000 election.
Quinnipiac Poll
The over-under for how many times President Donald Trump will tweet during Sunday's Super Bowl is 1.5. | Getty
As chaotic as the first two weeks of Donald Trump's presidency have seemed, Americans' views of Trump's nomination of Neil Gorsuch to be an associate justice on the Supreme Court are mostly holding true to historical form.
A Gallup poll out on Friday shows a 45-percent plurality want to see the Senate confirm Gorsuch, a federal appeals court judge from Colorado. Fewer than a third, 32 percent, don't think the Senate should confirm Gorsuch.
Nearly three-in-four Republicans, 74 percent, want the Senate to confirm Gorsuch, while only 8 percent do not. Among Democrats, 21 percent want the Senate to vote in favor, while 57 percent don't. Independents tilt toward confirmation, 44 percent to 31 percent.
That's roughly on par with initial reactions to recent Supreme Court nominees. Elena Kagan's initial scores were 46 percent confirm versus 32 percent don't confirm. Support was higher for Sonia Sotomayor: 54 percent confirm, against 28 percent don't confirm.
George W. Bush's last high court justice, Samuel Alito, had half of Americans behind his confirmation when Bush nominated him, while a quarter were opposed.
But initial support for approving a court nominee is no guarantee of eventual confirmation. A Gallup survey in mid-March of last year found 52 percent of Americans wanted the Senate to vote in favor of Merrick Garland's nomination to fill the same vacancy on the court to which Trump has nominated Gorsuch, while only 29 percent were opposed.
In fact, Republican opposition to Garland's nomination — 33 percent confirm, 51 percent don't confirm — was less unified than Democrats are against Trump's choice of Gorsuch.
Trump has stormed into Washington, upending both longstanding policies and long-maintained conventions that have governed the capital for decades.
But Americans aren't surprised.
Nearly eight-in-10 Americans, 78 percent, say Trump is handling the presidency as they expected, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Friday. Only 21 percent think he's handling his job in an unexpected way.
Democrats are more surprised than Republicans: 31 percent of Democrats say Trump has been unexpected, compared to only 10 percent of Republicans.
Overall, 42 percent of Americans say the fact Trump is behaving as expected is "a good thing," while 35 percent say it's a "bad thing."
Among those whom Trump has caught-off guard, they don't view that positively. Overall, 17 percent say Trump is behaving unexpectedly, and it's a bad thing. Only 3 percent say Trump has surprised them in a positive way.
While polls over Trump's executive actions on immigration are mixed thus far, there's little evidence most Americans view a temporary ban on visitors from the seven countries as an urgent imperative.
Just over a third of respondents to a CBS News poll released Friday, 36 percent, say the temporary ban will make the U.S. safer from terrorism. But the same percentage, 36 percent, say it will actually make the country less safe. Fewer than a quarter, 22 percent, say it will have no effect.
Sixty-eight percent of Republicans say the order will make the country safer, while only 9 percent say it will make the U.S. less safe. But it's flipped among Democrats: 63 percent think it will make the country less safe, but only 10 percent think the U.S. will be safer.
Rank-and-file Republicans don't think Trump is getting a fair shake from the news media.
The relationship between Trump's administration and the press is off to a rocky start, and Republicans are rooting for the president in his ongoing conflict with members of the media.
Nearly three-in-four Republicans, 74 percent, think the media has been "too tough" on Trump and his administration so far, according to a Gallup poll released Friday. Overall, 36 percent think the media have been too tough on Trump, while 31 percent think they have been about right and 28 percent think they haven't been tough enough.
Among Democrats, 49 percent think the media haven't been tough enough, while 40 percent think they've been about right.
On Trump's first full day as president, he referred to members of the news media as "among the most dishonest human beings on Earth."
Eight years ago, only 11 percent of Americans said the media had been too tough on then-President Barack Obama in his first two weeks, while 48 percent said they had been about right and 38 percent said they hadn't been tough enough.
It's Super Bowl weekend, when Americans typically turn to football, gambling and gluttony as welcome distractions. But the two-week-old Trump presidency is casting a shadow over the big game.
Trump acknowledged as much himself on Friday, bragging that "politics has become a much bigger subject than the Super Bowl."
"This is usually Super Bowl territory, and now they're saying that the politics is more interesting to people," Trump said. "So that's good."
Similarly, Trump is also infiltrating another Super Bowl tradition: the silly but lucrative realm of proposition bets.
Usually, these "prop bets" include whimsical wagers like whether the coin toss that decides which team receives the opening kickoff will come up "heads" or "tails," which player will score the first touchdown and whether the game will include a safety or missed extra point.
This year, the prop-bet odds include a number of Trump-related offers, according to the online sportsbook Bovada. Among them: What will be larger on Sunday — the length of Trump's pre-game interview with Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly in minutes, or the number of rushing yards gained by slow-footed Patriots quarterback Tom Brady? (As of late Friday, you have to wager $250 to win $100 if you say Trump's interview will be longer.)
If Trump makes a prediction in that Fox interview, the odds are heavy that he'll select the Patriots (bet $1,000 to win $100) — Trump is close with Pats owner Robert Kraft — but you can win $550 on a $100 bet if Trump picks the Falcons.
Trump in the past has tweeted extensively about the Super Bowl: Three years ago, he rated the Seahawks' blowout victory over the Broncos as "the worst Super Bowl in history." This year, oddsmakers are setting the line at 1.5 Trump tweets during the game, from kickoff to the final whistle. But you have to bet $200 to win $100 if you want to take "over" 1.5 tweets, while an "under" bet pays $150 on $100.
Perhaps the most absurd Trump prop bet is the wager on whom the Super Bowl's most-valuable player will mention first after he is presented the trophy. The favorite is his team or teammates (win $150 on a $100 bet).
But if the Super Bowl MVP improbably mentions Trump before anyone else in his speech, you can win $5,000 on a simple $100 bet.
Of course, these odds are presented solely for entertainment purposes.
President Donald Trump's initial approval rating was lower than every previous president reaching back to Dwight Eisenhower. | AP Photo
With the start of the Trump administration, we're resuming this POLITICO feature, where we dig into the latest polls and loop in other data streams to tell the story of how Americans are reacting to the political upheaval in Washington. Here are five numbers that mattered this week:
It's only one week into President Donald Trump's term, but Americans are registering greater disapproval of his administration than any of his predecessors in the modern era of polling at the outset of their presidencies.
According to the latest RealClearPolitics average as of Sunday, Trump's approval and disapproval ratings are nearly identical: 44 percent approve, and 45 percent disapprove.
Trump's initial approval rating in the Gallup tracking poll — 45 percent after the first three nights of his presidency — was lower than that of each previous president reaching back to Dwight Eisenhower. Two former presidents, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, each had a 51 percent approval rating in Gallup's first measurements, 6 points higher than Trump's.
The percentage who disapprove of Trump is more instructive than his approval rating. In the initial Gallup poll, Trump had a 45 percent disapproval rating. Some of that can be explained by polarization: 81 percent of Democrats disapproved of Trump, but only 6 percent of Republicans disapproved.
But public opinion of Trump's nascent presidency is still far worse than that of the early days of previous presidents, including his most recent predecessors. Barack Obama's first disapproval rating was only 12 percent. Even George W. Bush, who was elected after a protracted and controversial recount, opened with only 25 percent disapproval. Bill Clinton won just 43 percent of the vote in 1992, but only 20 percent disapproved of his job performance at the outset of his presidency in 1993.
There is a fairly wide spread in Trump's approval rating, ranging from 55 percent in the latest Rasmussen Reports automated survey, to 36 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll.
One possible cause may be question wording — some analysts have suggested that asking respondents whether they approve of "the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president," as Quinnipiac does, may yield lower approval ratings than asking about "the job Donald Trump is doing as president," as other polls ask.
The Republican-leaning Rasmussen poll — 55 percent approval versus 45 percent disapproval, as of Friday — excludes respondents who express no opinion of the president's job performance, and therefore leads to inflated numbers for both measures.
Meanwhile, there are signs Americans' perceptions of Trump worsened over the past week. Trump's approval rating in the latest Gallup daily tracking poll, conducted last Thursday through Saturday, has slipped to 42 percent. More than half, 51 percent, disapprove of Trump's job performance.
Republicans maintained control of both houses of Congress in last year's elections, but GOP voters are still distrustful of the legislative branch.
Only 35 percent of Republican voters approve of the way Congress is handling its job, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week. Nearly half of Republicans, 49 percent, disapprove. (Overall, 19 percent of voters approve of Congress' job performance, and 67 percent disapprove.)
That's part of a longer-term trend: Even as Republicans won control of the House in the 2010 elections and captured the Senate in 2014, their voters were slow to warm to those chambers after building up opposition to Democratic control.
Contrast approval with the new Congress to early 2007, just after Democrats took over both chambers. In the spring of 2007, congressional approval stood at 39 percent in a Quinnipiac poll, while 52 percent disapproved. Democrats tilted modestly in favor of Congress: 51 percent approval to 41 percent disapproval.
Back then, Republican approval of Congress was only 5 percentage points lower than it is today: 30 percent, compared to 64 percent who disapproved.
Continued voter disdain for Congress could give Trump — who had an 81 percent approval rating among GOP voters in the Quinnipiac poll — the upper hand in a possible clash with Hill Republicans.
Trump's initial approval rating in the Quinnipiac poll is upside-down. Roughly two-thirds of voters, 66 percent, describe themselves as dissatisfied with the way things are going in the nation today.
But while Trump is on a short leash, a majority of voters are still giving him a chance.
According to the Quinnipiac poll, 53 percent of voters say they are generally optimistic about the next four years with Trump as president, compared with 43 percent who are pessimistic. The optimists include the vast majority of Republicans, 96 percent — but also 20 percent of Democrats and 51 percent of independents.
Perhaps more interesting than the partisan splits is the gender gap regarding the next four years: 60 percent of male voters say they are optimistic, but only 46 percent of female voters agree. That's wider than the 8-point gender gap in Trump's approval rating: 41 percent among men, 33 percent among women, according to Quinnipiac.
With the 2010 health care law on the brink of repeal, more than 4 in 10 voters say they would punish lawmakers who scrap the law.
According to the Quinnipiac University poll, 43 percent of voters say it would make them less likely to reelect their congressperson or senator if they vote to repeal Obamacare — a greater share than the 24 percent who said it would make them more likely to reelect their member. Another 29 percent said repealing Obamacare wouldn't matter much either way when it comes to reelecting their member of Congress.
Among Democrats, 74 percent said repealing the law would make them less likely to vote to reelect their member. But just 5 percent of GOP voters say it would make them less likely to reelect their members, while half said repeal would make them more likely to support the incumbent.
Among self-identified independents, only 21 percent say repealing Obamacare would make them more likely to reelect their congressperson or senator, but 44 percent say it would make them less likely. Twenty-eight percent of independents say it wouldn't matter.
From replacing Obamacare to building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the ambitious agenda Trump and congressional Republicans are pursuing could come at a budget-busting price tag.
But new polling last week from the Pew Research Center suggests the federal deficit is no longer the priority for Americans that it was years ago.
A 52 percent majority says the budget deficit should be a "top priority" for Trump and Congress, the Pew survey shows. That's roughly equal to the 53 percent who rated it a top priority eight years ago, when Obama became president.
But Republicans successfully criticized the expansion of deficits under Obama and congressional Democrats, who said greater spending was necessary to overcome a deep recession precipitated by the financial crisis of 2008. By early 2013, at the start of Obama's second term, 72 percent of Americans said cutting the deficit should be a top priority.
More Republicans (63 percent) today call the deficit a top priority than Democrats (46 percent), suggesting the GOP will still have to walk a fine line when it comes to implementing costlier parts of Trump's agenda.
A 52-percent majority of Hillary Clinton supporters now say they are "very enthusiastic" about voting for her. | Getty
Clinton clings to fragile lead
Hillary Clinton enters the final weekend of this historic presidential campaign with a small-but-real lead over Donald Trump — nationally and in enough key states to be elected president.
Polls show clear gains for Trump over the past few weeks, though there are some inconclusive suggestions in the data that the Republican's momentum may have been arrested this week, with the bombshell letter from FBI Director James Comey farther in the rear-view mirror.
Clinton's lead isn't secure. There is ample precedent for the polls to be off the mark by a sufficient margin for Trump to win the national popular vote. And despite the conventional wisdom that Clinton has an Electoral College advantage, Trump's rise in the polls has exposed the cracks in that firewall.
Here are five numbers that underscore Clinton's lead — and its fragility:
Two national polls released Friday night offer similar overall results: A Fox News poll shows Clinton leading Trump by 2 percentage points, while the latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll, conducted over roughly the same time frame, shows Clinton ahead by 4 points.
But beneath the topline numbers, there are key differences in the two surveys.
The ABC News/Washington Post poll — the most recent rolling average is composed of interviews conducted Monday through Thursday — indicates enthusiasm for Clinton, which tapered off after Comey's letter last week, has rebounded.
A 52-percent majority of Clinton supporters now say they are "very enthusiastic" about voting for her, equal to the 51 percent of Trump supporters "very enthusiastic" about him.
Enthusiasm for Trump has been relatively stable, ranging between 49 percent and 53 percent over the two weeks of the tracking poll.
But enthusiasm for Clinton has been more tumultuous. Over the first four nights, 49 percent of Clinton voters were "very enthusiastic," but that dipped to the mid 40s after Comey's letter.
The recovery was abrupt. In the four nights previous to the poll's release — Sunday through Wednesday — Clinton's "very enthusiastic" share was 47 percent. But dropping Sunday's interviews and adding Thursday's increased that figure 5 points.
The Fox News poll, however, holds a nugget that suggests there is an enthusiasm gap favoring the GOP nominee. More Trump voters (71 percent) say they "strongly support" their choice than Clinton voters (65 percent).
Similarly, more Trump supporters say they are "extremely interested" in the election (63 percent) than Clinton supporters (54 percent).
But, as Democrats will note, the final Fox News poll of the 2012 election showed Mitt Romney's supporters more interested in the election, and more likely to say it was really important who won.
Comey's letter gave Trump's numbers a short-term jolt, but the real uptick in his poll numbers came in the week leading up to it.
One possible explanation: Dissatisfaction with the 2010 health care law, particularly following news that premiums for those purchasing on the individual exchanges are set to rise, on average, 25 percent next year, with fewer options available to consumers.
The Fox News poll has tracked likely voters' perceptions of the law — President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement and a key part of the Democratic platform — twice in the past three weeks. In Fox's October 10-12 survey, roughly as many voters favored keeping the law in place (46 percent) as would repeal it (48 percent).
But support for maintaining the law has dropped to 41 percent in the new survey, with a 52-percent majority in favor of repeal.
Two weeks ago, Clinton had a lock on the Electoral College battlegrounds. But Trump has made significant inroads, according to public polls, coinciding with his rise nationally.
As of mid-October, Clinton had leads of five points or greater in six of the battleground states in the POLITICO Battleground States polling average — Colorado, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
But going into the final weekend, Clinton's advantage only exceeds 5 points in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In Colorado, Clinton's average lead is still at 4 points, including two Democratic polls on Friday that showed Clinton ahead by 5 points.
In New Hampshire, Clinton's lead has narrowed even more. She still has a 2-point lead in the average, but the three most recent polls show a tie, a tie and a 1-point Trump lead, respectively.
Clinton's lead in Virginia is now 4 points, though that's driven in part by one poll late last month that gave Trump a 3-point lead.
Clinton also has small leads in two states she's never been able to move firmly in her column: North Carolina and Nevada.
Trump, meanwhile, leads by 3.2 points in Iowa and 2.2 points in Ohio, and by a statistically insignificant 0.4 points in Florida.
One reason there's so much uncertainty in the race so close to Election Day is the sharp decline in high-quality polls this year.
FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver on Friday calculated the number of polls in competitive states released from Thursday evening through the day on Friday. In all, Silver counted 67 polls across 17 states.
That seems like a robust number, but of the 67 polls, only 5 were conducted by live telephone interviewers randomly calling voters on landlines and cell phones — still considered by many to be the most reliable form of polling.
The other 62 surveys were conducted either by automated phone calls to landlines, polls conducted over the internet or a combination of the two. Landline-only polls ignore the roughly half of adult Americans who live in households with only a wireless phone. And while some firms are producing accurate results online, much of that work is still less proven and experimental, and roughly one-in-10 Americans still lack internet access.
Live-interview polls have flaws, too. And their decline is a result of a number of related factors: They are becoming more expensive, budgets have been shrinking at the news organizations that have traditionally sponsored them and the online research is far cheaper.
Many of the state polls that have moved the polling averages toward Trump have been less-expensive surveys conducted by Republican firms. But without the higher-quality polls, it's difficult to know whether that movement is genuine.
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James Comey's letter on Friday risks reinforcing the prevailing view of Hillary Clinton: that she isn't honest or trustworthy. | Getty
Will new FBI review dent Clinton's lead in the polls?
After revelations that federal investigators are examining additional evidence concerning Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, a presidential race that appeared largely in the bag for Clinton is suddenly looking more uncertain.
It will be several days before the polls reliably reflect the political impact — if any — of FBI DIrector James Comey's Friday letter to congressional leaders. But already there are some indications the news could hurt Clinton.
The story reinforces existing perceptions of the former secretary of state: Despite her solid lead over Donald Trump on the ballot test, voters continue to harbor deep doubts about her trustworthiness. And previous stories about Clinton's use of a private email account to conduct State Department business have led to an erosion in her poll numbers at earlier points in the campaign, including when Comey said in early July that the FBI would not recommend charges against Clinton and others despite what he called Clinton's "extremely careless" email protocol.
Here are five data points to watch in the final 10 days of the campaign to see if the latest revelations move the needle — and the race tightens.
Comey's letter on Friday risks reinforcing the prevailing view of Clinton: that she isn't honest or trustworthy. In a Fox News poll out earlier this week, only 30 percent of likely voters viewed Clinton as honest or trustworthy, compared to 67 percent who don't.
Among Trump voters, the news won't matter much either way: 99 percent of Trump voters already think Clinton isn't honest or trustworthy.
But here's the potential danger for the Democratic nominee: Nearly a third of voters who say they are backing Clinton, 32 percent, think she isn't honest or trustworthy. Only 64 percent of Clinton voters say she is honest and trustworthy.
The numbers are especially daunting for Clinton among independents: Only 14 percent of those who don't affiliate with either party think Clinton is honest and trustworthy, compared to 84 percent of those who don't.
Clinton has been more successful than Trump at uniting her party headed into the general election, but Friday's disclosure threatens to reopen old cleavages following a fractious Democratic primary.
Among Democratic voters surveyed by Pew Research Center, majorities find Clinton honest and moral. But there's a sizable divide between Democrats who supported Clinton in the primaries, and those who backed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Eighty-three percent of Clinton-backing Democrats believe she is honest, but only 40 percent of Sanders supporters do. The splits are not quite as dramatic on the question of whether Clinton is "moral": 88 percent of Clinton supporters think she is, while 64 percent of Sanders voters think so.
Sanders voters are also more likely to say Clinton is "reckless" (23 percent to 9 percent) and "hard to like" (42 percent to 25 percent).
Friday's news adds to an ongoing — though entirely separate — Clinton controversy involving email: the apparent hacking of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's personal email account and publication of those unverified messages on the website WikiLeaks.
Overall, 37 percent of likely voters said the WikiLeaks disclosures made them less likely to support Clinton, according to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll released Wednesday — this was after respondents were informed that the Podesta emails included "topics in high-priced speeches she gave to big bankers which differed from her public positions."
For the most part, voters who have decided on a candidate viewed this question through their own partisan lenses: 70 percent of Clinton supporters said it had no impact on their vote, while 68 percent of Trump voters said it made them less likely to support Clinton.
But among undecided voters, 41 percent said it made them less likely to support Clinton, and 40 percent said it didn't make an impact.
It's too early to say, but it's possible the Comey letter could be viewed from the same perspectives.
While it's too soon to tell, Comey's July 5 statement rebuking Clinton but stopping short of recommending charges offers a possible analog.
Back on July 4, Clinton had a 4.1-point lead over Trump in the HuffPost Pollster model of public polls. By July 17, the day before the GOP's national convention in Cleveland, Clinton's lead had diminished to 2.5 points. (Similarly, Clinton's lead in the RealClearPolitics polling average went from 4.6 points on July 4 to 3.2 points on July 17.)
Where does the race stand today? As of Friday night, Clinton had a larger advantage in the HuffPost Pollster model, 7.1 points, than her 5.2-point lead in the RealClearPolitics average. But in either case, the most recent disclosure would have to move the needle more than the July statement in order for Trump to close the gap.
How much does the email issue matter to voters? The evidence suggests quite a bit.
A majority of likely voters, 62 percent, said in a CNN/ORC International poll conducted last week that "the way Clinton handled her email while serving as secretary of state is an important indicator of her character and ability to serve as president," while just 37 percent said it "is not relevant to her character or ability to serve as president."
Again, many voters interpret this through their own partisan lens: 93 percent of Trump voters say it's important, but only 34 percent of Clinton voters agree. Still, losing even some of those Clinton voters for whom it is important would be perilous for the Democratic nominee.
Viewed in a different context, the CNN poll suggests Clinton's email scandal is just as important to likely voters, if not slightly more so, than Trump's treatment of women. A slightly smaller majority of likely voters, 59 percent, said the way Trump treats women is "an important indicator of his character and ability to serve as president," and 38 percent said it isn't important.
(The question was asked roughly two weeks after the release of the tape of Trump describing groping women; a dozen women have since come forward to claim that Trump made unwanted sexual advances or contact with them. Trump has denied these allegations categorically.)
On the issue of Trump's treatment of women, 93 percent of Clinton voters say it is important, but a smaller percentage of Trump voters, 19 percent, say it isn't important. That suggests, if the FBI investigation produces evidence that casts further doubt on Clinton among these voters — or continued ambiguity produces a cloud over Clinton through Election Day — her voters are more likely to be troubled by that evidence than Trump supporters would be by further allegations of improper conduct against the GOP nominee.
Donald Trump is winning just 80 percent of likely voters who identify as Republicans, compared to Clinton's 91-percent share of self-identified Democrats, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. | Getty
Continuing our POLITICO feature, where we dig into the latest polls and loop in other data streams to tell the story of the 2016 campaign. Here are five numbers that mattered this week.
Donald Trump was lagging well behind Hillary Clinton's pace among his own partisans going into this week's third and final debate.
A Quinnipiac University poll conducted in the two days prior to Wednesday's debate showed Trump winning just 80 percent of likely voters who identify as Republicans, compared to Clinton's 91-percent share of self-identified Democrats. Overall, Clinton led Trump by 7 points among likely voters, 47 percent to 40 percent.
Other polls also show Trump winning fewer Republicans than Clinton wins Democrats. A Fox News poll conducted last Saturday through Monday showed Clinton at 87 percent among Democrats but Trump with only 80 percent of Republicans.
While the state of the race after the final debate isn't entirely clear, any Trump comeback depends first on bringing home Republicans who drifted away from him, then winning over swing voters.
Clinton is within striking distance in Georgia — down by only two points in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released on Friday — despite winning only one-in-five white voters.
Overall, the poll shows Trump with a slight advantage in the GOP-leaning state, 44 percent to 42 percent. Among white voters, however, he leads Clinton by 45 points: 65 percent to 20 percent.
That seems like a massive advantage, but Trump is actually weaker with white voters than Mitt Romney was in 2012. There was no state-level exit poll in Georgia four years ago, but The New York Times estimates that Clinton's 20-percent share is equal to President Barack Obama's performance among white voters in the state.
Romney, meanwhile, won 79 percent of white voters in 2012. But more white voters are defecting to Libertarian Gary Johnson this year: The former New Mexico governor wins one-in-10 white voters, according to the poll.
Clinton is running about even with Obama's pace among black voters, who accounted for about a third of the state's electorate in 2012. She leads Trump, 88 percent to 3 percent, with Johnson also capturing 3 percent of black voters.
Four years ago, Obama won black voters in Georgia, 93 percent to 6 percent, according to the Times' estimates.
Virginia — a reliable Republican state until 2008 — is basically off the map for Trump, in large part due to his weakness with college-educated white voters.
A new Christopher Newport University poll released Friday shows Clinton leading Trump by 12 points, 45 percent to 33 percent.
Trump leads overall among white voters by 12 points, 44 percent to 32 percent. Clinton is a little short of the roughly 40 percent of the white vote Obama captured in 2012, but Trump is farther from Romney's 60-percent baseline.
Clinton has an 8-point lead among white voters with a college degree, 41 percent to 33 percent.
Trump, meanwhile, leads by 45 points among white non-graduates, 62 percent to 17 percent. But he's still short of Romney's roughly two-thirds of the white-non-graduate vote.
Trump's campaign insists it isn't pulling out of Virginia, despite the polls showing Clinton well ahead. But the first signs are emerging that Trump is cutting back his investments in states where he trails Clinton badly.
The GOP nominee this week quietly scaled back the amount of money he's planning to spend in Virginia next week. He's now set to spend $265,000 on the Virginia airwaves, less than half his planned spending, with roughly half those cuts coming in the expensive D.C. market.
Virginia isn't the only place where Trump is making significant cuts. Trump on Friday slashed his planned spending in New Hampshire next week in half — two days after a poll showed Clinton ahead by 15 points there. Trump is now set to spend $485,000 in New Hampshire next week instead of the originally planned $938,000.
POLITICO on Friday outlined the current battleground landscape and found Clinton solidly ahead in enough states to capture more than the 270 electoral votes needed to win — including the 13 from Virginia and 4 from New Hampshire. As of Friday night, Trump was sticking with his planned advertising in Colorado ($860,000), Florida ($3.7 million), Iowa ($408,000), Maine ($138,000), Nevada ($758,000), North Carolina ($1.1 million), Ohio ($1.1 million), Pennsylvania ($1.1 million) and Wisconsin ($354,000).
The debate over media bias in the election also extends to substantive differences among partisans about the role news outlets should play.
A Pew Research Center study in the field in late September and early October asked voters how the media should handle potentially offensive statements made by presidential candidates: emphasize them "because it is important for the public to know," or don't emphasize them "because it unfairly gives the candidate extra attention?"
Clinton and Trump had made comments along these lines earlier in the campaign — Trump slamming Arizona Sen. John McCain for being a prisoner of war or attacking the parents of a Muslim-American solider killed in Iraq, and Clinton describing some Trump backers as "deplorables" who are "irredeemable."
Overall, 62 percent of voters said they want the media to emphasize those comments, while 35 percent think the media shouldn't emphasize the comments. But among those who said they would vote for Trump, only 49 percent want the media to emphasize the comments, and 45 percent think they shouldn't.
Clinton voters tilt the other way: 72 percent think the media should emphasize those comments, and only 26 percent think they shouldn't.
The Pew poll, which was conducted mostly before a tape of Trump making sexually aggressive statements 11 years ago emerged, exposed another divide: More Clinton voters (77 percent) thought fact-checking is a major responsibility for the news media than Trump supporters (53 percent).
Hillary Clinton holds a 6.8 point lead over Donald Trump heading into the home stretch of the campaign. | AP Photo
Donald Trump's terrible week on the campaign trail has placed him farther behind Hillary Clinton than at any point in the past two months.
Clinton now leads Trump by nearly 7 percentage points in a head-to-head matchup, according to the RealClearPolitics average as of Friday night — and it would be a full point larger if it wasn't for the stubborn Los Angeles Times/USC Dornsife panel study, which showed Clinton and Trump tied on Friday.
That is Clinton's largest lead in two months: Her lead topped out at nearly 8 points in early-to-mid August. It tracks with other aggregators and models: Clinton has a 7.9-point lead in the HuffPost Pollster model, reaching her highest point this week since mid-August. Clinton's 89-percent odds of winning in The New York Times' "Upshot" microsite's model is higher than since late August. Clinton is above an 85-percent chance at victory in the FiveThirtyEight "polls-only" model for the first time since August 20.
Clinton's most-recent surge appears to be mostly a function of a Trump drop. In the RealClearPolitics average, Clinton began to climb in the polls after the first debate in late September. But Trump has fallen precipitously since a video emerged last week of the now-GOP nominee making sexually aggressive comments off-camera 11 years ago. Any effect of the more than half-dozen women who've since come forward to claim that Trump made unwanted sexual advances toward them — or touched them sexually without consent — likely aren't yet factored into the polls.
Even as he's fallen nationally, Trump remained tied with Clinton in Ohio, according to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll, with the two deadlocked at 45 percent in a head-to-head matchup.
Ohio has been among the swing states where Trump has held up better, and the linchpin of his coalition there is less-educated white voters.
The NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows Trump leading Clinton among white voters without a college degree, 58 percent to 31 percent. That helps offset a 6-point Clinton lead with white college graduates, 48 percent to 42 percent.
White voters without a college degree make up about half the entire Ohio electorate, and they were 51 percent of the poll's sample of likely voters.
Trump's 58-percent share among whites without a college degree is precisely the target The New York Times' Nate Cohn set for Trump to win Ohio — provided the GOP ran 5 points worse than Mitt Romney did among college-educated white voters and Hispanics. But poll after poll has showed Trump underachieving among college-educated white voters by a larger margin.
One important consequence of Trump's post-tape slide has been decreased enthusiasm among some of the key groups behind his political success.
In this week's Fox News poll, six-in-10 white registered voters with a college degree say they are "extremely interested" in this year's election. But the percentage of whites without a college degree that are "extremely interested" is lower: just 48 percent.
That divide persists by gender: 60 percent of white men with college degrees are "extremely interested," but only 46 percent of white males without a degree are. And while 59 percent of women with a college degree are "extremely interested," 49 percent of non-college women are.
That tilts the race toward Clinton. Trump leads among all whites without a college degree by 25 points, 53 percent to 28 percent. That's about 6 points ahead of where Romney ran in 2012.
But Trump is shedding more-educated white voters: Clinton actually has a 1-point advantage among whites with a degree, 42 percent to 41 percent. It's a group Romney won four years ago by about 6 points — and unless Trump can bring disaffected, less-educated whites who haven't voted regularly to the polls, he likely won't surmount that arithmetic.
That less-educated white voters are less enthusiastic in the polls suggests Trump isn't building a movement to overcome that.
Pennsylvania has emerged as Clinton's Electoral College firewall in large part because of Trump's weakness in the vote-rich counties surrounding Philadelphia.
A Bloomberg Politics poll out this week showed Clinton with a 9-point lead statewide — and a 28-point advantage in the four suburban Philadelphia counties: Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery.
With 59 percent of the vote in those four counties, Clinton is running 5 points ahead of President Barack Obama's 2012 share there. But with just 31 percent, Trump is 13 points behind Romney's pace in those four counties.
There's little room for Trump to grow there: Only 28 percent of likely voters in the Philadelphia suburbs have a favorable opinion of the GOP nominee, while 70 percent view him unfavorably.
Clinton, meanwhile, is popular there: 56 percent view her favorably, and 42 percent have an unfavorable opinion.
Utah has long been one of the most reliably Republican states in the nation — Romney won 73 percent of the vote there in 2012, and John McCain won 63 percent in 2008 — but a perfect storm of political oddities threatens to turn it away from the GOP presidential nominee for the first time since 1964.
Two separate polls this week showed Clinton running close to Trump — in large part because Republicans were defecting to independent Evan McMullin, a Mormon who attended Brigham Young University in Provo.
The Monmouth University poll this week actually gave Trump a 6-point lead over Clinton, but only showed the Republican at 34 percent. McMullin, meanwhile, was a strong third at 20 percent.
But even if Trump carries Utah's six electoral votes, it won't be because voters there like him. Only 19 percent of likely voters in the Monmouth poll have a favorable opinion of Trump — which is actually lower than the percentages who view Clinton (25 percent) and McMullin (28 percent) unfavorably. Roughly 70 percent of likely voters view Trump and Clinton unfavorably, while McMullin's unfavorable percentage is only 6 percent.
McMullin's problem is name-identification: About two-thirds of likely voters, 66 percent, say they have no opinion of him.
The independent's gambit has always been to deny Trump the state's electoral votes and hope a close race nationally means that prevents either candidate from winning an Electoral College majority, forcing the election into the House.
If Clinton pulls away, that would be less likely, and a McMullin victory in Utah would be a historical footnote — though no less extraordinary.
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'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' season 4: Here's our first look at Ghost Rider!
...and he looks HOT.
By Michal Schick
Robbie Reyes, a.k.a. Ghost Rider, makes his smoking hot debut in a band new image from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4.
Robbie, played by Gabriel Luna, may be known as the Spirit of Vengeance when the flaming skull of Ghost Rider overtakes him. But based on the evidence from this new still photo, we think Robbie is more like the Spirit of Extreme Hotness.
Look, check out the image from EW if you don't believe us.
The still photo from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4 features Robbie in a dark junkyard, rocking a leather jacket and racing gloves. Ghost Rider's famously badass car is nowhere to be seen, but we have no doubt that the Hell-raising street racer will look perfectly sizzling in the flashy wheels.
According to showrunners Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon, Robbie Reyes represents an incarnation of Ghost Rider that better suits Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. than the original Johnny Blaze. As a young Latino man charged with caring for his younger brother, Robbie should fit seamlessly into the series, which does much of Marvel's heavy-lifting when it comes to diversity.
But regardless of his identity, introducing Ghost Rider is guaranteed to throw the scientifically-oriented series for a loop — something Tancharoen and Whedon are counting on.
With the premiere of Doctor Strange looming in November, "a different side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe [is] going to be opened up," Whedon says, and Ghost Rider "plays in that world."
"It's not exactly the spy world we live in, but we feel like, with [magic] entering the MCU, this is us sort of dipping our toe into that world as we open things up," he adds.
But with the S.H.I.E.L.D. team already grappling with a new Director (played by Jason O'Mara), the disappearance of Daisy Johnson, and loyalties splintering among the group, magic and mystery may just be a bridge too far for our embattled agents.
Don't look for acceptance of the supernatural too early on in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4. Tancharoen says that the team (along with the audience and most of the MCU) will "basically be trying to science, "Why?""
Update: The car has been spotted! Marvel has released a found-footage style teaser of Robbie's wheels, set against an appropriate backdrop of flames. Consider our appetites whetted!
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4 premieres on Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 10:00 p.m. on ABC.
What do you think of Ghost Rider's smoking look in 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' season 4?


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#Judicial Circuit Court#Peterson Investments Lllp
Case activity for Peterson Investments LLLP vs Susan Hedberg on Nov. 30
By Florida Record
flarecord.com
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activities...
Court activity on Jan. 19: Discover Bank vs William Crespi
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Discover Bank against William Crespi on Jan. 19: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-CC-015380-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Nov. 17, 2021.
FLORIDA STATE・ 23 HOURS AGO
Court activity on Jan. 19: Midland Credit Management Inc. vs Randy Bays
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Midland Credit Management Inc. against Randy Bays on Jan. 19: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-062428-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Nov. 16, 2021.
Court activity on Jan. 19: Eliezer Vergel vs Miguel Queipo
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Eliezer Vergel against Miguel Queipo on Jan. 19: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-065497-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Dec. 10, 2021.
Court activity on Jan. 19: DNF Associates LLC vs Ana Folgar
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by DNF Associates LLC against Ana Folgar on Jan. 19: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-062514-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Nov. 17, 2021.
Court activity on Jan. 19: Bernard Joseph Thomas vs Shawntrell Miranda Georga
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Bernard Joseph Thomas against Shawntrell Miranda Georga on Jan. 19: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-062448-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Nov. 17, 2021.
Court activity on Jan. 19: Auto Club Insurance Co. vs Lindsay Nicole Shelby
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Auto Club Insurance Co. and Tuanh Nhat Ho against Lindsay Nicole Shelby on Jan. 19: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-062425-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on...
Court activity on Jan. 19: Credit Corp. vs George Ward
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Credit Corp. against George Ward on Jan. 19: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-062510-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Nov. 17, 2021.
Court activity on Jan. 19: Capital One Bank USA N.A. vs Michael Mendoza
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Capital One Bank USA N.A. against Michael Mendoza on Jan. 19: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-062506-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Nov. 17, 2021.
Court activity on Jan. 18: Michelle Gagne vs Aad Homes
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Michelle Gagne against Aad Homes on Jan. 18: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-062276-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Nov. 16, 2021.
FLORIDA STATE・ 1 DAY AGO
Court activity on Jan. 18: Melynda Atwood vs Serene Dental
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Melynda Atwood against Marc Anderson and Serene Dental on Jan. 18: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-065660-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Dec. 13, 2021.
CONGRESS & COURTS・ 1 DAY AGO
Court activity on Jan. 14: Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB CVI AMR Investment Trust TRST vs Karthryn Booth
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB CVI AMR Investment Trust TRST against Karthryn Booth on Jan. 14: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-061874-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida...
FLORIDA STATE・ 5 DAYS AGO
Court activity on Jan. 14: LVNV Funding LLC vs Sulymar Fernandez
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by LVNV Funding LLC against Sulymar Fernandez on Jan. 14: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-061870-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Nov. 11, 2021.
Court activity on Jan. 14: LVNV Funding LLC vs Frank Kutsukos
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by LVNV Funding LLC against Frank Kutsukos on Jan. 14: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-061873-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Nov. 11, 2021.
Court activity on Jan. 13: Christian Griffith vs Dennis Ramcatur
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Christian Griffith against Dennis Ramcatur on Jan. 13: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-061925-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Nov. 12, 2021.
Court activity on Jan. 13: Galaxy International Purchasing, LLC vs Yanet Ramirez
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Galaxy International Purchasing, LLC against Yanet Ramirez on Jan. 13: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-061623-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Nov. 9, 2021.
Court activity on Jan. 11: Absolute Resolutions Investments LLC vs Donnie Dowling
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity in the suit brought by Absolute Resolutions Investments LLC against Donnie Dowling on Jan. 11: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-061152-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida on Nov. 5, 2021.
9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida: Actions Taken on Jan. 12
The 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida reported the following activity on Jan. 12 in the suits below:. In Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC against Isabel Torresmoquete: 'Hearing - Pre-trial Civil-Civil, Pretrial'. Case number 2021-SC-061265-O was filed in the 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. In Galaxy International Purchasing, LLC against...
Florida Supreme Court's rule change expected to reduce punitive damages claims
Chief Justice Charles Canady voted with the majority on the punitive damages rule change, which takes effect April 1. | Florida Supreme Court. A rule change approved by the Florida Supreme Court earlier this month could potentially reduce how often claims for punitive damages are awarded in civil court decisions, according to legal experts.
Bradley Welcomes Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Natalie Hirt Adams as Partner
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings issued the following announcement on Jan. 13. Bradley is pleased to announce the arrival of former Assistant U.S. Attorney Natalie Hirt Adams as a partner in the firm's Government Enforcement and Investigations Practice Group in Tampa. "Natalie's trial experience background as a former U.S. Attorney...
POLITICS・ 3 DAYS AGO
Marshall Dennehey's Alan C. Nash Appointed to Board of Directors of the Broward County Chapter of RIMS
Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin issued the following announcement on Jan. 11. Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, a leading civil defense litigation law firm with four offices in Florida, announced today that Alan C. (A.C.) Nash, shareholder in the firm's Fort Lauderdale office, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Broward County Chapter of RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.
BROWARD COUNTY, FL・ 3 DAYS AGO


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text:
Q: Form element container heights I'm building a form manager for my framework and want to add methods to create form elements based on parameters passed. Each "element container" has the following:

*

*A validation row positioned at the top of the container. This row is turned off by default (display: none) and will only show if a javascript validation error occured.

*A label container (situated on the left)

*A form control container (situated on the right)

Here is a sample HTML:

           Label

                <input type='text' name='' value='' />

My issue here is that I need to the control_container to seperate label and elements containers but also need the label_container and element_container to both have the same height irrespective of the content. These 2 containers may have different background colours so I need to ensure that the stretch to the bottom of the control_container and also keep in consideration that the validation div might show (so using position: absolute and top: 0 might not work).
I have tried the following:

*

*Giving control_container a relative position and the 2 seperate containers both a position absolute. As the height of the containers would mostly be dictated by the height of the label (if the label is multiple lines or if the element_container has multiple elements within it this option does not work.

*Floats (There I say more? :D)

I would prefer a CSS solution which is compatible with most browsers (including IE8 (am I pushing it to ask for IE7 haha)
Any ideas?
** ADDITIONAL INFORMATION **
I want the layout to look something like this:
 --------------------- control_container ---------------------
 [Potential validation message (this will be toggled on/off) ]
 [label_container][ elements_container                       ]
 ------------------- end of control_container ----------------

So label_container (with the label) and elements_container (with it's elements) will be next to eachother. These 2 containers may have different background colours so they should both stretch (height) according to the biggest element. The only issue I see here is validation element which wont show by default so using absolute positioning might not work as the validation message might take the top area and have the elements overlap eachother.

A: HTML:

Test

    Label Label Label Label Label Label Label Label Label Label Label Label Label Label Label Label

           <input type="text" name="test" value="" />

CSS:
.controls {
position: relative;
display: table;
width: 100%;
}

.controls .message {
background: red;
padding: 5px;
color: #FFF;
font-weight: bold;
height: 30px;
width: 100%;
display: table-caption;
box-sizing: border-box;
}

.controls .label_container {
display: table-cell;
background: #D3D3D3;
width: 150px;
height: 100%;
margin-top: 30px;
}

.controls .elements_container {
display: table-cell;
background: #A2A7DD;
color: #000;
width: 650px;
height: 100%;
margin-top: 30px;
margin-left: 150px;
}

All of them here in jsFiddle: Demo

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Zodiac Story
Chinese Zodiac Origin Stories
The Race Story of Chinese Zodiac Animals Order of 12 Chinese Zodiac Stories Folktales about Why No Cat in Chinese Zodiac?
The Race Story of Chinese Zodiac Animals
There are 12 animals on the Chinese Zodiac calendar including Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. About the stories and legends related to the twelve animals, there are many versions. Hereunder is a well-known one and can be easily understood by kids. After reading the story, you will get answers for these frequently asked questions: What's the origin of the Chinese Zodiac? Why are there twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac calendar? How did the scheme order come from? Why did the small Rat come in the First place? Why is the cat not in the Chinese zodiac?
The story is about the race between the animals. Chinese legend said that the Jade Emperor, who was the ruler of the heavens, asked all the animals to participate his birthday (on the ninth day of the first Chinese lunar month) and held a great race. The first 12 animals that came could be given a place in the calendar.
At that time, the cat and the rat are neighbors. The cat always bullied the weak rat. However, the rat only swallowed the anger. As soon as the cat heard the news, he asked the rat to wake him up on the morning of the day to go together as he was a sleepy head. The rat promised to do so. But to take revenge on the cat, he went out early without waking up the cat on that day.
Although the rat got up early and run fast, he became worried when he arrived at the river bank as he was a poor swimmer. After waiting for the come of the ox, he asked the help from the ox to carry him across the river. With the help of the honest and helpful ox, the rat successfully crossed the river. However, he didn't jump off from the ox's back until they arrived at the door of the Jade Emperor. Just as the ox was about to win the race, the rat leapt to the Jade Emperor before the ox. Thus, the rat won the first place in the race and the second the ox. Later came the Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, and Dog. The lazy pig arrived last and got the last place.
The cat, on the tenth day of the first lunar month woke up early and hurried on his journey. When he came to the heaven, other animals all mocked him that he had arrived one day later. From then on, the cat and rat became enemies. Every time the cat meets the rat, he would chase and try to eat the rat.
Order of 12 Chinese Zodiac Stories
Please click the following zodiac sign's link to get how they rank in 12 Chinese Zodiac animals. You will get why the Rat comes first, from where the dragon got its horn, why there is no leg for the snake and more interesting stories and legends.
Folktales about Why No Cat in Chinese Zodiac?
Chinese zodiac is represented by 11 animals which are quite familiar to us in daily life and the legendary creature Dragon. Cat is also very common in our daily life, but why is it excluded in the 12 Chinese zodiac signs? The folktales about why no cat in Chinese zodiac are too numerous to mention.
→ Why is the Cat not in the Chinese Zodiac?
Were you born in a lucky month? Which zodiac women could bring good luck to husband? Lucky Floor Numbers for Apartment in Feng Shui What business to start and make the most money?
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Lastest Questions and Answers
about the rat being gullible? i was wondering what zodiac sign who wrote that? (0 Reply ) Asked by s***f | 8/18/2022 10:33:35 PM
i personally think that you may think we are gullible, but we are also just leading you on, for example, you are bluffing a story, and it sounded...
Looking for Sources regarding the Zodiac Stories listed on YourChineseAstrology (1 Reply ) Asked by Z***r | 3/13/2017 4:23:37 AM
Hello! I'm doing research on origin stories for the zodiac animals, and the ones covered here are rather unique and interesting: I was wondering...
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