According to two Minnesota Public Radio News and Humphrey Institute polls, the extraordinary
financial crisis and the resulting congressional response along with the Vice Presidential debate
propelled the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama from a narrow 4 point lead (47
percent to 43 percent) to a 14 point advantage among likely voters in Minnesota (54 percent to 40
percent).

The presidential race in Minnesota was impacted by several critical events before and after
October 2nd. First, the financial crisis culminated in extraordinary action in Congress as the
Senate passed a massive rescue bill and the House of Representatives reversed its earlier negative
vote to enact the package on Friday October 3rd. Second, the debate between Sarah Palin and Joe
Biden on Thursday October 2nd drew a record audience for a Vice Presidential debate; its
audience was nearly 50 percent larger than the audience for the first presidential debate.
The surveys were conducted of 346 likely voters between September 29, 2008 and October 1,
2008, and 418 likely voters between October 3rd and October 5th. The margin of error is +/-5.3
percentage points and 4.8 points, respectively. For smaller subgroups the margin of sampling
error is larger.