On Friday afternoon’s America Live, Fox News contributor Alan Colmes beat back a tide of anti-Obama talking points about the President and Israel. Most importantly, he refuted 2011′s real Lie of the Year (in my book), one that was referenced by presidential candidate Mitt Romney at last night’s debate, but has also been spread by the likes of NBC News’ Brian Williams: that President Obama urged Israel to return to the pre-1967 borders.

Debate fatigue? A recent USA Today/Gallup poll released yesterday shows a whopping 70% of Americans are solidly opposed to the neverending reality show known as the “2012 presidential campaign,” or at least “can’t wait for it to be over.” The desperation for the campaigns to end transcends ideological boundaries, geography, and age, with men being slightly less averse to the whole thing.

Everybody pass the Cheetos! A majority of Americans now support marijuana legalization — 50%, up from 46% last year, according to a new Gallup poll. Stoners can celebrate that this percentage is an all-time record-high in the history of the poll. The poll was released following the news that California Medical Association has called on the federal government to legalize the drug.

According to a new Gallup Poll, the majority of Americans feel that Barack Obama has been “about the same” or “worse” than George W. Bush as president. 65 percent of those polled feel that Obama is doing “about the same” or “worse” than Bush; or, if you’d rather, 65 percent feel that Obama is doing “about the same” or “better” than W.

A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows plenty of reason for Mitt Romney to smile, and for Rick Perry to check his rear-view mirror. On the heels of a debate that saw Perry take a beating on Social Security, his lead in this poll has dropped from 12% in late August, to just 7% in a poll taken days after the CNN/Tea Party debate. Prior to the debate, a Zogby Poll had Perry with an 18-point lead. Coupled with the fact that Perry still loses in head-to-head polling with President Obama, while Romney wins, is Perry’s campaign headed for trouble?

President Obama‘s approval ratings may have fallen in the latest Gallup poll, but National Journal‘s Beth Reinhard and Brian McGill say Obama should hang on to hope. “Another president who suffered a recession early in his first term also had, at the same point in his first term, an approval rating hovering in the low 40 percent range — and President Reagan went on to win a landslide reelection victory the following year,” Reinhard and McGill write, warning that GOP excitement over the president’s weakness may be premature. “First of all, the approval ratings for Congress and the tea party are falling further faster. (Obama may want to take a cue from Harry Truman, who famously ran against the “Do-Nothing Congress.’’)”

The past few months have provided a little bit of everything in the real of shocking news stories– from the Casey Anthony verdict to the fall of Anthony Weiner to the end of News of the World. But fear not, news viewers– some things never change. For example, Donald Trump will never stop hinting at a last-minute presidential run– this week promising to run against a “wrong” Republican candidate at an event in Panama.

A new Gallup poll reveals that voters who identify as more conservative, do not have college degrees and who make $24,000 or less annually are more likely to support former Alaska governor Sarah Palin over Mitt Romney for president in 2012. Romney, on the other hand, has evidently fared better with voters who describe themselves as “liberals to moderate”, have received degrees of higher learning and who make at least $90,000 a year.

The split drives home the challenges facing any would-be GOP candidate: Catering to the party’s base without completely alienating those on the fence, and appealing to voters across a wide spectrum.

According to a new Gallup poll released today, President Obama‘s approval rating has returned to a 41% approval ratings, the lowest level at which he’s ever polled, the last time coming around November of of 2010 around the mid-term elections. Perhaps most concerning to the White House reelection efforts is that his approval rating is down most among likely independent voters, with 35% of independents approving of the job Obama has done, nine points lower than where that figure has been earlier in the year.

On Monday night’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews briefly worked over a recent Gallup poll that named Americans’ picks for the Greatest President Evah, but The Blaze‘s Pam Key seems to think Matthews was taking a shot at Ronald Reagan‘s Alzheimer’s Disease, posting the video with the headline “Chris Matthews Disgustingly Concludes Americans ‘Limited Memory’ Must be Only Reason They Think Reagan Was a Great President.“

In a deafening blow to institutional memory, a new Gallup poll asking Americans to rank their favorite presidents finds the nation’s favorite presidents mostly to have lived within their lifetimes, with three of the top five having served during the second half of the 20th century. This year, Ronald Reagan won the top spot, with Abraham Lincoln, Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy and, straggling behind, George Washington rounding out the top 5.

According to the latest Gallup Daily tracking report, President Obama‘s recent string of legislative accomplishments has paid dividends by helping to restore his job approval rating to 50%. Gallup says his job approval has not been this high since near the end of May and the beginning of June. Before Obama supporters get too excited though, there are some interesting caveats.

A new Gallup poll reveals that American confidence in television news and newspapers has hit a record low: only a quarter of Americans say they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in either. According to Gallup these results continue a trend that began in 2002. Alas, what the poll doesn’t clarify is what Americans do find to be a trustworthy news source.

Move over Frank Luntz: online dating site OK Cupid has released an extensive survey on American party identification using their members as a sample group. For the most part, the results are nothing new: people tend to grow conservative as they age; views on abortion fall on party lines, etc. The study, surveying more than 100,000 people, presents a grim conclusion for the Democrats’ political diversity, but a bright future for accurate online polling.

Interesting new poll numbers out today that I imagine will result in a lot more politicians addressing the Tea Party movement with increasing sincerity between now and November. Turns out no matter how in the habit the media is of using ‘Tea Partiers’ as a byword for crazy, fringe, offensive sign-bearing Americans, they are actually the opposite. Namely, everyday Americans.

The Democrats’ extremely short health care honeymoon appears to be over. This week, according to Gallup, voters are apparently back to preferring the GOP candidate. Something so rare it’s only happened three times before now. Reporters are apparently “flummoxed.”

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has been easing into “the Twitter” slowly, with 5 tweets over the course of 2 days. With over 18,000 followers, every utterance is sure to generate Twitter heat, as this morning’s surely will. Gibbs notes that the recent snow in DC may have buried the lede that global opinion of US leadership went way up from 2008 to 2009. Cue right-wingers returning to not caring what the world thinks of us.

At the end of every year, Gallup asks Americans which men and women they most admire. Today, they released their results, a number of which are surprising: for instance, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton narrowly beat Sarah Palin as the Most Admired Woman. President Barack Obama easily won the Most Admired Man title, with 30% of mentions. But there’s a new and noteworthy addition to the list: Glenn Beck, who came in fourth place.

Much has been made in the past week about the fact President Obama’s approval rating has dipped below 50% for the first time, but here’s another take on those numbers courtesy of Richard Prince at the Maynard Institute. Turns out when the Gallup numbers are parsed Obama’s ratings have only really fallen significantly with white people.

She may not have won the Democratic nomination, but Hillary Clinton is now more popular than Barack Obama. According to a new Gallup poll, Obama’s favorability rating is now 56%, versus the Secretary of State’s 62%. In January, Obama led Clinton 78% to 65%. In many respects, it’s easy to see why: as always, the media is partly to blame.

In a Newsbusters piece just picked up by the Wall Street Journal titled “Shhh! Gallup Reports That Conservatives Outnumber Libs in All 50 States; Media Plays Dumb,” Tom Blumer fumes at the wicked mainstream media for not paying enough attention to a recent Gallup poll that purportedly says that conservatives outnumber liberals in all 50 states. Did the media really drop the ball on a story this big?

Upon closer reflection, this is a misleading claim at best, and bogus at worst.