What They Told Us: Week Ending October 4, 2008http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/weekly_updates/what_they_told_us_reviewing_last_week_s_key_pollsVoters 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.
Before the collapse of Lehman Brothers started the Wall Street crisis a few weeks ago, 24% of Americans said the nation was heading the right direction. While that figure was already low, it kept falling and is down to 10% today. Eighty-six percent (86%) say the nation has gotten off on the wrong track.
Nationally, Barack Obama has opened a modest but stable lead over John McCain in both the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and the Electoral College projections.
Key states like Florida, Ohio and Colorado that went George W. Bush’s way are now tied or close to tied. Obama is ahead in Virginia and North Carolina, states the GOP has long called its own.
While the results for the first presidential debate on Sept. 26 were mixed, voters in surveys following the debate gave a boost in trust to Obama over McCain on 10 major issues tracked by Rasmussen Reports.
But Sarah Palin’s peformance in the highest watched debate since 1992 was a bit of good news for Republicans at week’s end, especially since 34% said the vice presidential debate was important to how they will vote. Polling results on the debate will be released later today.
Speaking of Palin, the mother of five, 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.
This election year, voters nationwide continue to rank the economy as the number one issue, and by substantial majorities they say the country’s economic situation is getting worse. The Rasmussen Consumer Index and the Rasmussen Investor Index, which measure confidence in both these areas on a daily basis, continue to hover in record low territory.
In his first inaugural address in 1981, Ronald Reagan told Americans, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” and 59% of voters still agree with him.
Voters are evenly divided over whether Congress should take action to help the troubled financial industry or just let Wall Street work out its problems on its own.
A sizable majority says Wall Street will benefit more than the average taxpayer from the taxpayer-funded economic bailout plan. Maybe that’s why just 26% of American adults have even a little bit of confidence that the nation’s policy makers know what they’re doing when it comes to the current problems on Wall Street.
Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans think politicians are more interested in gaining additional power than in fixing the economy anyway.
In other polls last week:
-- Obama’s numbers were up in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and New Mexico.
-- McCain had good news in Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arizona, Nebraska, Tennessee, Montana and Mississippi, but some of these states were getting closer than the Republican candidate expected.
-- In the nation’s Senate races, incumbent Democrats were comfortably ahead in Louisiana and Iowa while veteran Republicans had solid leads in Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas. The Republican candidate in Nebraska looks likely to hold that Senate seat for his party, but in New Hampshire and Mississippi GOP incumbent senators may be in trouble.
-- Almost all of the recent polling data from North Carolina has brought good news for Democrats, but the Governor's race is an exception. Pat McCrory, the Republican mayor of Charlotte, now has a slight lead over Democratic Lieutenant Governor Bev Perdue.
-- The gubernatorial race rematch in Washington State between incumbent Democrat Christine Gregoire and Republican challenger Dino Rossi is now a tie.
-- For the first time since Rasmussen Reports began polling on the issue, a plurality of voters in September said the U.S. mission in Iraq will be viewed as a success in the long term.
-- 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.
-- Now that autumn is officially upon us, the top weekend activity for most Americans is simply a long walk outside.
-- And, sssh, don’t tell anybody, but 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% said Lehrer was neutral.
