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Two-thirds want the Senate to ratify Obama’s nuclear arms-reduction treaty with Russia, including most Democrats, about 6 in 10 Republicans, and independents — and even about half of conservative Tea Party movement supporters. Some Republican senators oppose the treaty. The Obama administration hopes to win Senate approval in the upcoming lame-duck session of Congress and will need GOP support to garner the 67 votes required.

Politicians — the ones worth their salt, anyway — are exceptionally skilled at making believers out of people, and they’ll try to make a believer out of you. Some of the time, they’ll make a strong enough argument to persuade even the most seasoned observers. But a much smaller fraction of the time will they actually turn out to be right. That’s what the data says, and it says so pretty clearly.

The Senate has not acted on global warming for several reasons, but not because of scant public approval. Contrary to the July 12 front-page story, public support for action on climate change remains strong. The Post's own June poll found that 71 percent favor action to "regulate the release of greenhouse gases" -- an increase since your poll in December. Americans clearly want investments in clean-energy jobs and to slash climate pollution. Whether 60 senators listen, or 41 follow big oil, is the real question.

NEW YORK — People around the world say they firmly support equal rights for men and women, but many still believe men should get preference when it comes to good jobs, higher education or even in some cases the simple right to work outside the home, according to a new survey of 22 nations.

All of which leaves the old kind of anticorporate populism — “the people versus the powerful,” as Al Gore put it — a beat behind the times, sort of like “flower power” or the Laffer Curve. Mr. Obama and his party are probably right to presume that voters don’t trust BP or any of the powerful companies the president has taken to castigating on a regular basis. The problem is that they don’t trust Washington to stand up for them, either.

Regarding poll findings about climate change, Mr. Krosnick posits that his question is more legitimate than others. It is but one approach and hardly ideal. The question’s preamble is “you may have heard about the idea that the world’s temperature may have been going up slowly” and then asks whether this is “probably” happening. Such wordings often encourage a positive response: this is known in the polling world as acquiescence bias.

When senators vote on emissions limits on Thursday, there is one other number they might want to keep in mind: 72 percent of Americans think that most business leaders do not want the federal government to take steps to stop global warming. A vote to eliminate greenhouse gas regulation is likely to be perceived by the nation as a vote for industry, and against the will of the people.

The latest edition of an annual health care poll conducted by Mass Insight suggests most people don’t find the price they pay for health coverage to be a serious problem. The poll, which will be officially released next week, also shows a large majority of people don’t want to give up anything when it comes to health coverage or the freedom to choose whom they see for medical help.

It's not that the American people aren't concerned about the deficit. But in poll after poll, they make clear that their No. 1 concern is jobs. Forty-seven percent of respondents to a Fox News poll this month, for instance, said they were concerned with the economy and jobs, while just 15 percent acknowledged concern over the deficit and spending. Eighty-one percent of respondents to a Pew Research Center poll from this month thought it "very important" for Congress to address the jobs situation -- more than for any other topic. "There is no significant difference across party lines," Pew reported.

Anti-government sentiment runs high in the poll, with about seven in 10 saying they are "dissatisfied" or "angry" with the way the federal government works, the most to say so since just after the government shutdown ended in early 1996. Nearly half of all those angry with how Washington works say they support the tea-party movement. Nevertheless, most voters say they won't be swayed by a candidate's association with the tea party, and more say that would drive them away from such a candidate than to support him or her.