Despite a gloomy attitude on the economy and general dissatisfaction with the way things are going in the country, almost all American voters feel grateful this Thanksgiving season.

Fully 96 percent of voters feel thankful, according to a Fox News poll released Tuesday. That includes 79 percent who feel "very" thankful and another 17 percent who feel "somewhat" thankful.

Few voters are feeling "not very" (2 percent) or "not at all" thankful (2 percent).

Eighty-one percent of Republicans and 80 percent of Democrats are "very" thankful. That's a bit higher than the 74 percent of independents who feel that way.

More women (83 percent) than men (74 percent) are "very" thankful, and Northeasterners are 10 percentage-points more likely than Midwesterners to feel that grateful.

Who are the bigger turkeys of 2011?

Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are now essentially tied for the lead in the 2012 Republican presidential race, according to a new national poll Gallup released today looking at the candidates seeking to replace pro-abortion President Barack Obama.

Among all Republicans nationwide, Romney is the choice of 20% and Gingrich 19%. Among Republican registered voters, Gingrich is at 22% and Romney at 21%, the new poll found.

Among the other candidates, all of whom are campaigning as pro-life advocates opposed to abortion and taxpayer financing of abortions, the poll of all Republicans finds Herman Cain at 16 percent, Ron Paul at 10 percent, Rick Perry at 8 percent, Michelle Bachmann at 5 percent, and Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum tied at 1 percent apiece. The survey of registered Republicans has Cain also in third at 16 percent, Paul with 9 percent, Perry with 8 percent, Bachmann at 4 percent and Santorum and Huntsman getting one percent...

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama’s overall job approval in Gallup’s daily tracking poll is currently at 43 percent--which is within a point or two of where it has been for the past three weeks.

But his approval for how he is handling the federal budget deficit, according to a survey conducted Nov. 3-6, is only 26 percent, Gallup reported today.

That is the second lowest approval level that Obama has received during his term for his handling of the deficit. His lowest approval for handling the deficit was the 24 percent he received in a survey conducted Aug. 11-14, the last time Gallup polled on this question. That was less than two weeks after Obama signed legislation to increase the federal debt limit by as much as $2.4 trillion...

With Sunday marking the one-year countdown to Election Day 2012 and his approval rating stuck in the low 40s, President Obama will have to defy American electoral history if he is to win re-election.

At 43 percent approval in a Gallup poll conducted Oct. 28-30, Mr. Obama recently referred to himself as an “underdog” — with good reason. Of all the presidents since World War II whose job-approval scores were lower than 50 percent one year before Election Day, only one went on to win a second term.

That was President Nixon, whose job approval stood at 49 percent in November 1971. He rebounded to defeat Democrat George McGovern in a landslide in 1972.

Mr. Obama does have some advantages. He is still a formidable fundraiser, having amassed more than $150 million for his campaign and the Democratic National Committee this year...

Three-quarters of American voters -- 76 percent -- are dissatisfied with how things are going in the country, according to a Fox News poll released Thursday.

That’s up from 69 percent who felt that way in April, and 61 percent at the beginning of the year.

At the Obama administration’s 100-day mark in April 2009, just over half of voters -- 53 percent -- were dissatisfied with the direction of the country. That number has steadily increased since. The current level of displeasure is almost back to where it was immediately before Barack Obama took office -- 79 percent dissatisfied (January 2009).

The poll shows 43 percent of voters approve and 50 percent disapprove of the job Obama is doing as president. Last month 43 percent approved and 51 percent disapproved.

A national poll recently conducted and released by Angus Reid Public Opinion shows that only 21 percent of people believe abortion ought to be legal in all cases.

The poll tracks closely with others from the last three decades, and Derrick Jones of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) tells OneNewsNow the results are similar with what Gallup found earlier this year, "that people really are rejecting the idea of abortion for any reason throughout the entire pregnancy. It also shows that until we get to a point that we can welcome the unborn child in life and protect them in law, the American people are very supportive of laws that protect both mothers and their unborn children," he adds.

The Angus Reid poll also shows that the vast majority of people surveyed, whether Democrat or Republican, support parental consent before an abortion is provided to an underage girl.

(CNSNews.com) - The percentage of Americans who say they approve of the way President Barack Obama is handling his job as president has dropped back into the 30s, according to the Gallup poll.

Over the three-day period that ended yesterday, says Gallup, Obama's approval averaged only 39 percent. That was down from 40 percent for the three-day period that ended on Tuesday and 42 percent for the three-day period that ended on Monday.

Obama's current 39-percent approval in the Gallup poll is just one point above his all-time low of 38 percent.

President Obama has been campaigning almost non-stop since Labor Day, but his political fortunes have hardly improved. Obama’s September blitz through swing states, backed up with an aggressive media schedule, has apparently yielded little for the embattled incumbent.

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Obama dragging a 42 percent job-approval rating in Ohio and already evenly matched by Republican frontrunners Rick Perry and Mitt Romney in the all-important Buckeye State, where Obama has campaigned twice in three weeks.

And so it is across the states where Obama has focused his efforts in this first round of campaigning.

In Ohio and neighboring Pennsylvania, 51 percent of voters said Obama didn’t deserve a second term. In Virginia, the lynchpin to Obama’s 2012 strategy, a Roanoke College poll found the president with a 39 percent rating.

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama’s job approval among young people between the ages of 18 and 29 hit an all-time low in the Gallup poll last week, according to survey data released today.

In the seven-day period that ended on Sept. 25, only 45 percent of Americans in that age group said they approved of the way Obama was handling his job as president. That was down from 47 percent the previous week.

The president’s job approval among the 18-to-29 age group had dropped as low as 46 percent on three previous occasions—the weeks ending Aug. 28, 2011, May 1, 2011, and Aug. 15, 2010—but it had never dropped below that threshold.

Each week, Gallup publishes the president’s job approval among various demographic groups, including four age brackets: 18 to 29, 30 to 49, 50 to 64, and 65 and above.

Among these age brackets, Obama’s approval is currently lowest among those 65 and older.

(CNSNews.com) - Only 20 percent of Democrats say that President Barack Obama has been a better president than Bill Clinton, according to Gallup, while 56 percent of Americans told Gallup they believe Obama has been the same or worse than George W. Bush.

Among Independents, 67 percent say Obama is the same or worse than Bush.

Bill Clinton was one of only two presidents in history impeached by the House of Representatives. Near the end of his term, in the week before the November 2008 election, George W. Bush had 25 percent approval in the Gallup poll.

From Sept. 15-18, Gallup asked 1,004 adults: “Overall, do you think Barack Obama has been a better president, about the same, or worse than George W. Bush?” Gallup also asked the same question comparing Obama to Clinton.

Overall, 22 percent said Obama was about the same as Bush and 34 percent said he was worse than Bush. Only 43 percent said they thought Obama was a better than Bush...