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September 29, 2008

The End of the U.S. Financial System as We Know It? By Lawrence Kudlow

A number of Republican House members and staff, along with others who are plugged in, are telling me that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats will come back with a new bill that includes all the left-wing stuff that was scrubbed from the bill that was defeated today in the House.

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September 29, 2008

Obama Gets Post-Debate Boost in Voter Trust on All Issues

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.

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September 29, 2008

Discover (R) Small Business Watch (SM): Small Business Economic Confidence Falls Sharply

Economic confidence among small business owners declined sharply in September amid rising concerns about economic conditions for their businesses and a bleak vision of where the economy is headed. The Discover(R) Small Business WatchSM fell to 74.6 in September, down 12.3 points from August.

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September 29, 2008

Opposition to Bailout Plan Falls Dramatically

As Congress prepares to vote on a proposed economic rescue plan, opposition to the measure has declined significantly. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey conducted Sunday found that 33% of Likely Voters now favor the plan while 32% are opposed and 35% are not sure.

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September 28, 2008

Voters Divided on Whether America’s Best Days Are in the Future or the Past

In the midst of an economic crisis and an historic presidential election, voting Americans are evenly divided as to whether the nation’s best days lie ahead or in the past. Still, the current results are among the most optimistic of the past two years.

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September 28, 2008

The Sheriff and the Professor By Debra J. Saunders

Before getting to Friday night's debate, let us look at what happened before the debate.Yes, John McCain's suspension of his campaign earlier in the week and call for a delay of Friday's debate were campaign stunts.

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September 27, 2008

New Rasmussen Reports Party Weighting Targets: 39.0% Democrat 33.4% Republican

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.

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September 27, 2008

Winner of the First Debate: Jim Lehrer

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.

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September 27, 2008

51% Say Bailout Plan Is A Power Grab

Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans think politicians are more interested in gaining additional power than in fixing the economy with the proposed $700-billion taxpayer-backed financial rescue plan.

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September 27, 2008

Support for Bailout Plan Now Down to 24%

The more voters learn about the proposed $700-billion taxpayer-backed Wall Street rescue plan, the less they like it. Most voters remain largely unworried about their own money, too.

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September 27, 2008

Are We at an Inflection Point? By Michael Barone

You can sum up much of 20th century history by saying that in the 1930s Americans decided that markets didn't work and government did, and that in the 1970s Americans decided that government didn't work and markets did.

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September 27, 2008

What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending September 27, 2008

Official Washington and the two major presidential candidates seem more shook up by Wall Street’s mounting woes than the average taxpayer and voter.

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September 26, 2008

A Paulson-Cantor Plan Is a Win-Win for Taxpayers By Lawrence Kudlow

The single-biggest mistake in the Paulson bank-rescue-plan marketing effort has been the failure to explain clearly how taxpayers are going to recoup $700 billion used to buy toxic assets at auction in order to unfreeze the banking system.

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September 26, 2008

Rasmussen Markets Update: Bailout Bill Likely to Pass

At 1:00 p.m. Eastern on Friday afternoon, Rasmussen Markets data suggested there was a 68% chance the federal bailout bill will pass Congress by the end of this month. Expectations soared as high as 93% yesterday before sinking to a low of 60% early Friday morning.

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September 26, 2008

The Brilliance of McCain's Move By Dick Morris

McCain has transformed a minority in both houses of Congress and a losing position in the polls into the key role in the bailout package, the main man around whom the final package will take shape. He arrived in Washington to find the Democrats working with the Bush Administration to pass an unpopular $700 billion bailout.

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September 26, 2008

Americans Say, Don't Text While You Drive

For younger people especially, text messaging is becoming as common or more common than talking on the cellphone, the latter already the bane of many stuck in heavy traffic. Many states and localities have already restricted cellphone usage in a car, and there's a growing call for limits on text messaging next.

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September 26, 2008

48% Disagree with McCain, Think Debate Should Go On

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.

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September 26, 2008

Remembering Alcee Hastings By Susan Estrich

Alcee Hastings used to be a federal judge. Then he got impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate. Now he's a congressman from Florida. People have a right to vote for whomever they want, even one of the six federal judges in America ever to be removed by Congress.

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September 26, 2008

Voters, Start Your Engines By Cordel Faulk

Presidential debate season is upon us. That means John McCain, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Sarah Palin are traveling around the country with huge binders of prep materials under their arms---and dreams of an eight-year relationship with the Secret Service dancing in their heads.

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September 25, 2008

Generic Congressional Ballot Remains Steady this Week

The Democrats’ lead in the Generic Congressional Ballot has changed little over the past week. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that, if given the choice, 45% of voters would choose their district’s Democratic candidate, while 38% would choose the Republican candidate.