Former Senior Editor
Bruce Drake is a former senior editor at Pew Research Center.
President Obama meets Friday with Republican leaders after their election day victories to talk about cooperation on key issues. We review the public opinion challenges facing both parties in any quest for bipartisanship.
Six facts about the 2014 electorate culled from Pew Research surveys and analyses during this midterm year.
The crises in the Middle East with ISIS and the power struggle with Russian in the Ukraine have caused Americans shift to their views on U.S. global involvement.
As Sunni militants make a major military push against the central government in Iraq, the Obama administration is said to have rebuffed requests from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to use drones to strike at extremist bases. That reported reluctance follows years of U.S. military intervention in Iraq that many Americans say was misguided and failed to achieve its goals.
By the next decennial anniversary, the VA estimates that their numbers will be down to 81,117.
The speech also comes at a time when the American public has less of an appetite for foreign involvement and believes American clout is not what it used to be.
Tea Party agreement among GOP has fallen from 48% in March 2010 to 33% in late April, 2014.
Asked whether the VA put enough focus on post-9/11 war veterans compared to its treatment of previous generations of veterans, half of those who served in Iraq or Afghanistan said the treatment they got was about the right amount while 44% said it was not enough.
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