Political dysfunction. Partisanship at record levels. Attack politics run amok. And public approval of Congress scraping the single digits (Sen. John McCain is fond of saying it's down to blood rlatives and paid staff).

Now Pew Research has come out with figures for 2011. They're not good news for Barack Obama and the Democrats.

Baby boomers who came of age during the social and political upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s tended to call themselves Democrats. But starting in the 1980s, attitudes of the baby boomers began changing. If this transformation continues, leading more of them to embrace the GOP, it could affect the 2012 election.

A close look at a major voting group--aging baby boomers--shows that this growing demographic is becoming more conservative.

Republicans are much more enthusiastic about the race than they were a month ago, but the party-identification measures still suggest the playing field favors the Democrats.

Poll results reveal that the number of self-identified Republicans is falling--and those who remain in the party are decidedly unenthusiastic about it.

Young people often lead change, and two new surveys provide some clues as to where that change is headed.

Well, you didn’t have to guess who was the frontrunner subject to attacks in the Fox News Sioux City debate tonight: Newt Gingrich. Michele Bachmann lambasted him on his $1.6 million relationship with Freddie Mac, relentlessly, repeatedly, and making the point that the government-sponsored enterprises—Freddie Mac and its larger twin Fannie Mae—were at the epicenter of the financial crisis of 2008.