PPP (D)/Daily Kos/SEIU
7/19-22/12; 1,000 registered voters; 3.1% margin of error
Mode: Automated phone
Daily Kos Release

National

2012 President
46% Obama (D), 46% Romney (R) (chart)

Obama Job Approval
42% Approve, 53% Disapprove (chart)

Favorable / Unfavorable
Barack Obama: 45 / 50 (chart)
Mitt Romney: 41 / 49 (chart)

PPP (D)/Daily Kos/SEIU
6/14-17/12; 1,000 registered voters; 3.1% margin of error
Mode: Automated phone
Daily Kos Release

National

2012 President
49% Obama (D), 45% Romney (R) (chart)

Obama Job Approval
44% Approve, 50% Disapprove (chart)

Favorable / Unfavorable
Obama: 47 / 49 (chart)
Romney: 40 / 48 (chart)

Bloomberg / Selzer & Co.
3/8-11/12; 1,002 adults, 3.1% margin of error
377 Republicans
Mode: Live telephone interviews
Bloomberg release

National

State of the Country
31% Right Direction, 61% Wrong Track (chart)

2012 President: Republican Primary
37% Romney
27% Santorum
13% Gingrich
11% Paul
(chart)

AP - Israel's prime minister on Monday vigorously asserted his country's right to defend itself against the nuclear threat emanating from Iran, warning that time was growing short and declaring he wouldn't "gamble with the security of the state of Israel."

AP - President Barack Obama will speak at Joplin High School's commencement, a year after a tornado struck just after the ceremony, killing more than 160 people and destroying much of the city.

AP - Taking sharply different stands, President Barack Obama urged pressure and diplomacy to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized his nation's right to a pre-emptive attack. Even in proclaiming unity on Monday, the leaders showed no give on competing ways to resolve the crisis.

AP - President Barack Obama will speak at the high school graduation ceremony in Joplin, the Missouri city slowly recovering after being struck by a devastating tornado a year ago.

ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama delivered an address to the AIPAC conference in Washington on Sunday in which he said he was really serious about not allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons, according to the transcript in Politico.

ContributorNetwork - Only days ahead of the March 6 Super Tuesday primaries for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination, blogger Andrew Kaczynski uncovered new evidence on March 2 that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney urged President Barack Obama to adopt key provisions, including the most controversial elements, of Romney's 2006 Massachusetts healthcare reform law.

AP - The Obama administration on Monday congratulated the Russian people for turning out to vote in big numbers in this weekend's presidential election but said it was concerned by allegations of massive fraud and pointedly did not mention victor Vladimir Putin by name.

ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama was so touched by the travails of Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student derided as a "slut" by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, that he called her personally on the phone to offer comfort and encouragement, according to the Washington Post.

AP - An upstate New York man is accused of threatening to kill President Barack Obama and elementary schoolchildren in Saratoga County.

ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama was so touched by the travails of Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student derided as a "slut" by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, that he called her personally on the phone to offer comfort and encouragement, according to the Washington Post.

ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | One of the most curious suggestions made by the upcoming HBO film, "Game Change," is its depiction of Sarah Palin of being an ignoramus where it came to geography and history. According to the Los Angeles Times, it takes extreme lengths to do so.

AP - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the Syrian government Friday to immediately give humanitarian workers access to people who desperately need aid.

ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | Do Newt and Obama actually see eye to eye on higher education? Commenting on President Obama's 2009 call for Americans to "commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training," Newt Gingrich responded that it seemed "perfectly reasonable."

ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | One of the most curious suggestions made by the upcoming HBO film, "Game Change," is its depiction of Sarah Palin of being an ignoramus where it came to geography and history. According to the Los Angeles Times, it takes extreme lengths to do so.

ContributorNetwork - COMMENTARY | The U.S. Senate defeated the amendment proposed by Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt on Thursday that would allow exceptions into the Obama administration mandate that all employers must provide coverage for birth control no matter the religious beliefs of that employer. This administration's mandate oversteps the bounds of government as laid out in the Constitution.

AP - America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff finds himself entangled these days in his own thorny legal troubles: a federal grand jury probe over alleged abuse of power, Justice Department accusations of racial profiling and revelations that his department didn't adequately investigate hundreds of Arizona sex-crime cases.

Reuters - A tough-talking Arizona sheriff, already embroiled in a Justice Department bias investigation and other woes, waded deeper into controversy on Thursday with an attention-grabbing assertion that a probe by his office found President Barack Obama's birth certificate was a forgery.

ContributorNetwork - Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, and a number of other House members have sent a letter to Obama administration science czar John Holdren expressing concerns about astronaut safety in vehicles being developed under the commercial crew program.

AP - In its first statement on Syria in seven months, the U.N. Security Council on Thursday deplored the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation there and called on the government to grant U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos "immediate and unhindered access."

AP - America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff finds himself entangled these days in his own thorny legal troubles: a federal grand jury probe over alleged abuse of power, Justice Department accusations of racial profiling and revelations that his department didn't adequately investigate hundreds of Arizona sex-crime cases.

ContributorNetwork - According to the Associated Press, the Obama administration is pursuing its plan to allow the killing of barred owls in an effort to save the threatened northern spotted owl. The spotted owl has continued to be out-competed by the barred owl and the Obama administration noted that while the plan entails an ethical dilemma, an experiment on private land shows potential for enacting the plan in other areas.