This time it looks like Congress is listening to the voters. Nearly half of U.S. voters (48%) told Rasmussen Reports this week that it is better for the economy to let companies like General Motors fail rather than providing government subsidies to keep them in business.
President-elect Barack Obama continues to bask in the afterglow of a big and historic election, despite an equally historic post-election slump in the stock market.
There were few surprises for Rasmussen Reports’ visitors on Election Day. A Fordham University study found our daily Presidential Tracking Poll was the most accurate of 23 national polls covering the campaign.
During the final full week of Election 2008, voters told us the same thing they’ve been saying since mid-September—Barack Obama has a modest but stable lead in the race for the White House.
With 10 days until the election, things are looking good for Barack Obama in most of the nation.
While voters seem a bit more optimistic this week about the economy, the tide is still rolling strongly in the direction of big Democratic gains on Election Day.
The souring U.S. economy and the presidential battle between Barack Obama and John McCain dominated the polls again this week, but the findings were studies in contradiction.
Voters still had mixed feelings about the $700-billion financial rescue plan as it worked its torturous way through Congress last week, but for Republicans the country’s current economic mess is proving to be more and more of a drag at the polls.
Official Washington and the two major presidential candidates seem more shook up by Wall Street’s mounting woes than the average taxpayer and voter.
It’s the economy, stupid. That’s what Bill Clinton ran on in 1992, and it looks like that’s what the final weeks of Election 2008 are going to be all about, too.
Columnist Larry Kudlow calls it the Sarah surge. With excitement now running high on the Republican side, Barack Obama’s campaign and many in the media are reacting like GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is at the top of the ticket. Whatever the view, it appears that Palin drove the polls last week.
There’s little doubt that the story of the past week was the Republican National Convention… and that the story of the convention was Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
Barack Obama got the expected bounce from a successful Democratic National Convention, but the week was bookended by both candidates’ surprise choices for their running mates.
The national party conventions will make official over the next two weeks what we already know: The presidential race is Democrat Barack Obama versus Republican John McCain. Senator versus senator, youth versus age, experience versus “change.”
There were more troubling numbers for the news media this week, as voters nationwide continue to tell us that trust is an issue as far as journalists are concerned.
Gas prices may be going down slightly at the pump, but there’s no doubt the energy issue is number one right now in the presidential campaign. John McCain’s proposal to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling is resonating with voters, forcing Barack Obama to back off his opposition to the idea.
Barack Obama’s travels abroad were the focus of the news a week ago, but our latest polling finds that it really didn’t make any difference in the numbers at all.
Barack Obama was the political news this week, despite John McCain’s best efforts to get some of the media focus directed his way.
Is the U.S. winning the war on terror? Nearly half of Americans said yes this past week while only 20% gave the nod to the terrorists, a dramatic improvement over the past year and the most positive margin we’ve recorded since Rasmussen Reports began tracking on the issue in January 2004.
Over the past week, the Presidential race got a little closer, perceptions of Congress fell a little further, and there was plenty of talk about the economy.
