Voters say Barack Obama beat John McCain in Tuesday night’s presidential debate 45% to 28%, but they also think McCain is better prepared to be president than Obama by an 11-point margin.
Three out of four U.S. voters (76%) believe a person should be required to show photo identification at the polls before being allowed to vote, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just 18% do not agree.
Two-thirds (67%) of U.S. voters have a favorable opinion of Tom Brokaw, the moderator of tonight’s presidential debate, and nearly as many (62%) expect him to be neutral.
Seventy-two percent (72%) of U.S. voters say the United States is the best nation in the world, despite the country’s economic woes and criticism of American foreign policy from abroad.
Congress was front and center in the national news last week and the American people were far from impressed. If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, 59% of voters would like to throw them all out and start over again.
Like all polling firms, Rasmussen Reports weights its data to reflect the population at large. Among other targets, Rasmussen Reports weights data by political party affiliation using a dynamic weighting process.
The Vice Presidential debate on Thursday night attracted a bigger television audience than the Presidential debate a week earlier, but is not likely to have much of an impact on the results of Election 2008.
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.
In his first inaugural address, President Ronald Reagan delivered a line succinctly capturing the sentiment that elected him: “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Just over one-third of voters (34%) say tonight’s vice presidential debate is Very Important to how they will vote, and over half (54%) view Joseph Biden as the more skilled debater, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
While some debate whether Sarah Palin as a mother of five can be vice president, 67% of voters say children are a motivation for women in political office, not a distraction, and nearly one-third (31%) believe being a good wife and mother is a qualification to run for higher office.
While the results for the first presidential debate Friday were mixed, voters in surveys this weekend gave a boost in trust to Barack Obama over John McCain on a cross-section of issues.
Like all polling firms, Rasmussen Reports weights its data to reflect the population at large. Among other targets, Rasmussen Reports weights data by political party affiliation using a dynamic weighting process.
The winner of the first Presidential debate was moderator and PBS television personality Jim Lehrer. After earlier polls showing that most voters expect the moderators to be biased, 76% say Lehrer was neutral.
Official Washington and the two major presidential candidates seem more shook up by Wall Street’s mounting woes than the average taxpayer and voter.
Nearly half (48%) of voters disagree with John McCain’s request to postpone the first presidential debate tonight because of the country’s ongoing financial problems. Thirty four percent (34%) think McCain is right, and nearly one-out-of-five voters (18%) are undecided.
A month after they were named the vice presidential candidates of their respective parties, Sarah Palin is still viewed more favorably by voters than Joseph Biden, 54% to 49%. She also draws stronger feelings - pro and con - in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Three out of four U.S. voters (74%) say they are Very Likely to watch the upcoming presidential debates, but over half (56%) think debate moderators are biased in their questioning, according to new Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveys taken Friday and Saturday nights.
Like all polling firms, Rasmussen Reports weights its data to reflect the population at large. Among other targets, Rasmussen Reports weights data by political party affiliation using a dynamic weighting process.
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.
