Tom Rosentiel

The plight of Middle Americans has been much invoked by candidates from both parties this election year. Who are these folk? Here's a self-portrait painted in statistics.

View "word clouds" of voters' impressions of the performances of John McCain and Barack Obama in their first presidential debate based on one-word descriptions from a recent Pew survey.

Members who voted against the original House bill are said to be responding to strong opposition to the rescue plan from their constituents, but that’s not what most Americans are saying.

Political pundits, seeing no knockout punch, scored a tie. But viewers awarded the win to Obama.

In every recent election the public has accurately picked the winner by this time in the cycle. But not this year.

View "word clouds" of voters' impressions of the candidates based on one-word descriptions from a recent Pew survey.

They say it's a man's world, but in the typical American family, it's the woman who wears the pantsuit. Still, Americans retain strong traditional gender preferences with respect to some job roles. To find out where you fit, take our Couples Quiz, then read the report on the findings of the national survey.

As in two preceding tests, a new survey shows that including cell phone interviews results in slightly more support for Obama and slightly less for McCain.

The internet is allowing Americans to stay constantly informed about the news of the day -- on the company dollar - regardless of whether keeping up-to-date is important to their job.

There is little doubt that the fall campaign begins in earnest with McCain having gained the momentum. How good an indicator is this of where the electorate is headed on Nov. 4?