In an early March ABC News/Washington Post poll, 80 percent of Democrats had a favorable opinion of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), while 79 percent of Republicans had an unfavorable view of her.

Overall, 52 percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of the New York Senator, while 46 percent had an unfavorable one.

For his part, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was viewed favorably by 57 percent of Democrats, 64 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of independents.

The Ports and Politics. In an ABC News/Washington Post poll last week, 49 percent told interviewers that elected officials were mainly concerned about using the issue of a Dubai company’s port-operations deal for political advantage, while 37 percent said they were mostly concerned about national security.

Handling Bird Flu. In a March 2-5 ABC News poll, 30 percent said that it was very likely, and another 47 percent said it was somewhat likely, that the bird flu virus will reach the United States.

In addition, 59 percent said they were confident (16 percent said “very” and 44 percent said “somewhat”) in the federal government’s ability to respond to the health threat, while 40 percent were not so confident or not confident at all. People were more positive (64 percent) about their local hospitals’ and health agencies’ abilities to respond to an outbreak.

In a Feb. 28-March 1 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, 23 percent said they were following the avian or bird flu story very closely, putting it behind the situation in Iraq (46 percent) and the Dubai ports deal (40 percent). For comparison’s sake, 24 percent said they were following the Olympics very closely.

Canada, Great Britain and the U.S. on Government Performance. Americans find a lot to criticize about their government’s performance. Still, they have more trust and confidence in the U.S. federal government than people in Britain do in their government, and they have a similar level of confidence as Canadians have in theirs.

These findings come from a Gallup cross-national survey from 2005 that was recently released. It found that 56 percent in the United States had a great deal or a fair amount of trust and confidence in the federal government to handle international problems. Fifty-six percent gave that response in Canada but only 41 percent in Great Britain.

Fifty-three percent here had a great deal or a fair amount of trust and confidence in the government’s ability to handle domestic problems, compared to 48 percent who said so in Canada and 46 percent who said so in Great Britain.

Americans differ from Europeans in that they put more emphasis on individual responsibility than on governments solving problems. Sociologists call this American exceptionalism.

In the Gallup survey, 50 percent of Americans thought the government was trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses, while 44 percent thought the government should be trying to do more to solve our country’s problems.

For Canadians, the equivalent responses were 33 percent and 59 percent, respectively. In Britain, they were 39 percent and 52 percent.

Bad Showing for the U.N. In Gallup’s early February world affairs poll, 30 percent said the United Nations was doing a “good job” in trying to solve the problems it has to face, compared to 64 percent who said it was doing a poor job.

That’s one of the worst ratings for the body in the more than 50 years since Gallup first started asking the question. Only 23 percent of Republicans, 31 percent of independents and 36 percent of Democrats said the body was doing a good job.

Happiness by Party. The Pew Research Center recently updated a question about happiness that the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago has been asking since 1972.

In every asking of the question, Republicans have been happier than Democrats. Republicans tend to be better off than Democrats, and that is one explanation for the happiness gap. But when the researchers controlled for household income, Republicans at all income levels were happier than Democrats at those same income levels.

As for ideology, conservative Republicans were happier than conservative Democrats, and moderate to liberal Republicans were happier than comparable Democrats.

Constitutional Conundrums. In a January McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum survey conducted by Synovate, only one in 1,000 were able to name all five freedoms in the First Amendment, but one in five could name all five of the family members on “The Simpsons.”

In a July 2002 Public Agenda survey, only 16 percent said they had a detailed knowledge of the Constitution, while 66 percent said they were generally familiar with it. Still, those surveyed clearly revered the document and understood its basic ideas.

Karlyn H. Bowman is a resident fellow at AEI.