Strengthening the nation’s economy remains the public’s top political priority.

On a 12-question news quiz, Americans answered an average of 5.3 questions correctly.

A third of Americans say President Obama has been paying too much attention to banks and financial institutions – more than say so about any other group tested.

Seven-in-ten whites and six-in-ten blacks say that the values held by blacks and whites have become more similar in the past 10 years.

A plurality of the public believes that gays and lesbians face “a lot” of bias — roughly double the proportions that see widespread discrimination against blacks or Hispanics.

Asked to state what race they are (black; white; Asian; some other race) and told they could choose as many categories as they wished, just 1% of Americans identified with more than one category.

A majority of blacks now say that blacks who cannot get ahead in this country are mainly responsible for their own situation.

Overall, about a quarter of Americans see President Obama as black; a majority see him as of mixed race.

Nearly twice as many blacks now as in 2007 say that the “situation of black people in this country” is better than it was five years earlier.