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.

One constant factor in the 14 contests with exit polls is that Mitt Romney has tended to run best among high-income and high-education voters. His leading opponents -- Newt Gingrich in South Carolina and Georgia, Ron Paul in Iowa, New Hampshire and Virginia, and Rick Santorum everywhere else -- have run best among low-income and low-education voters.

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.

Political reporters always like to anoint one candidate as the front-runner. But there hasn't been a real front-runner in the Republican race so far.

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.