Democrats Trusted More on All Ten Electoral Issues Tracked by Rasmussen Reports

[RunInRed 16,438]

American voters now trust the Democrats on all ten key electoral issues tracked regularly by Rasmussen Reports. Last month, the GOP’s had an advantage on two issues.

Not surprisingly, the economy is still seen as the most important issue in this year’s presidential campaign--76% of voters say it is a Very Important issue. The Democrats now have a 14-point advantage over the Republicans on this issue, up from eight-points a month ago. Data from the Rasmussen Consumer Index shows that consumer confidence is currently hovering near record lows. Not only is confidence low, three-out-of-four Americans believe that economic conditions are getting worse.

Government Ethics and Corruption is a Very Important issue for 71% of Likely Voters. The Democrats have a huge advantage on this issue—45% now trust them while just 26% prefer the GOP. That lead has also widened since last month, when the Democrats had only a six-point advantage.

Perhaps the biggest surprise comes from the fact that Democrats are now trusted more when it comes to National Security and the War on Terror, an issue long considered a GOP stronghold. The latest polling, however, shows that 49% of voters now trust the Democrats more on this issue while 42% trust the Republicans more. This shift comes at the same time that confidence in the War on Terror has fallen significantly.

Each month, Rasmussen Reports asks likely voters to rank the importance of ten electoral issues and which of the two major parties they trust more on these issues. The Democrats have been dominant on most issues throughout the past two years. It should be noted, however, that these general perceptions are likely to have a bigger impact on Congressional races rather than the Presidential election. While voters tend to prefer Democrats over Republicans on a generic basis, John McCain consistently outperforms the GOP brand. In fact, polling shows that he is trusted more than either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton on key issues such as the economy and national security.

The trust on issues data reflects another significant trend of Election 2008—there is a growing number of people who consider themselves to be Democrats. In fact, the Democrats now have the largest partisan advantage over the Republicans since Rasmussen Reports began tracking this data on a monthly basis nearly six years ago.

Another issue the Republicans used to be trusted more on was taxes. Last month, the GOP’s had a four-point lead over the Democrats on this issue. This month, they have fallen behind to a five-point deficit. Taxes are a very important issue for 57% of voters.

The War in Iraq is a very important issue for 59% of voters. This month, the Democrats hold an 11-point lead over the Republicans on that issue. Last month, the Democrats led by just two points on that issue. A separate tracking survey has consistently found that six-out-of-ten Americans want troops home from Iraq within a year.

The Democrats lead the Republicans by double-digit margins on the issues of education, social security, health care, and immigration.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_con...trust_on_issues

[Tigermike 3,041]

Two or three weeks ago you didn't like Rasmussen. Now you do. Go figure.

[Tiger Al 0]

Two or three weeks ago you didn't like Rasmussen. Now you do. Go figure.

Maybe now he better understands the games that are played by many of the posters here.

[RunInRed 16,438]

Two or three weeks ago you didn't like Rasmussen. Now you do. Go figure.

A poll is a poll. Take it for what it's worth. And for the record, I don't post what I like...I post relevant items. And this is both surprising and relevant.

[Tigermike 3,041]

Two or three weeks ago you didn't like Rasmussen. Now you do. Go figure.

A poll is a poll. Take it for what it's worth. And for the record, I don't post what I like...I post relevant items. And this is both surprising and relevant.

So that is why you have posted on the ass whopping Obama received in West Virginia?

[RunInRed 16,438]

Two or three weeks ago you didn't like Rasmussen. Now you do. Go figure.

A poll is a poll. Take it for what it's worth. And for the record, I don't post what I like...I post relevant items. And this is both surprising and relevant.

So that is why you have posted on the ass whopping Obama received in West Virginia?

What's surprising or relevant about Obama losing by 30 points in West Virginia? It was expected and irrelevant as he already has the nomination locked up. If you are really interested in this story (enjoy, you can thank me later)....

If a tree falls in the forest when everybody expects it to fall, does it make a sound?

Yes, says Hillary Clinton. It makes a deafening roar, says Hillary Clinton.

SHE WON THE WEST VIRGINIA PRIMARY BY A KAZILLION PERCENTAGE POINTS TUESDAY NIGHT, AND THAT, SHE SAYS, HAS TO MEAN SOMETHING!

Except the press doesn’t think so. The press is unimpressed. This may be the first time in election history in which the press has withdrawn from a race before the candidate.

As John Harwood of the New York Times and CNBC said on MSNBC Tuesday several hours before the polls closed, “The headline tomorrow will be: ‘Hillary Clinton Wins Big in West Virginia; Democratic Party Yawns.’”

Wrong! says the Clinton campaign. The party is not yawning, the party is finally waking up to the fact that Barack Obama is a loser!

As Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s communications director, said Tuesday: “I think superdelegates who have been moving toward Barack Obama in the last week are going to wake up tomorrow and say, ‘I’m a little concerned about the fact that our nominee, presumptive nominee, can’t win West Virginia. I’m a little concerned that he can’t win Pennsylvania or Ohio, or Michigan, or Florida.’”

To which the Obama campaign says: “What, us worry?”

Obama, who made only two trips to West Virginia, is doing the equivalent of flicking dust from his shoulders. He didn’t even bother making a concession speech Tuesday night. He was campaigning in Missouri instead.

Missouri is a state he already won in the primaries, but that was the point: He doesn’t care about primaries anymore. Actual voters casting ballots? That is so yesterday.

As everyone knows, the Democratic nomination is determined not by voters actually voting, but by superdelegates choosing whomever they please. (They are the Democratic Party’s equivalent of the Electoral College, a safeguard against too much democracy. Unlike the Electoral College, however, superdelegates were not created in the 18th century but in 1984.)

What counts to Obama is that since his victory in North Carolina and narrow loss in Indiana last week, he has picked up 27 superdelegates and Clinton has picked up one and a half.

Roy R. Romer, a former governor of Colorado, a former Democratic Party chairman and a superdelegate, endorsed Obama on Tuesday, saying: “The math is controlling. This race, I believe, is over.”

Why did Romer decide to back Obama? Obama’s health care plan or his policy on Iraq or his position on the Alternative Minimum Tax? Naw.

“I watched all of these primaries and caucus states and decided Barack Obama was the most electable,” Romer said. Which is what superdelegates, the party insiders, were created to do: make cold calculations instead of giving their hearts away.

His calculations are wrong, says the Clinton campaign. He doesn’t realize that Obama has all these problems: He can’t win working-class voters, he can’t win voters who lack college degrees, he can’t win all sorts of voting groups that Democrats need to win in this fall. (And he has trouble with white voters in certain states: An incredible 20 percent of white voters in West Virginia said race was a factor in their vote, according to exit polls, a percentage second only to that of Mississippi.)

The Obama campaign has three answers to this: First, just because Obama loses a voting bloc in a primary does not mean he will lose the same group in the general election. The Democratic base is going to vote for the Democratic nominee no matter who it is. And among general election voters, Obama aides say, Obama is doing just fine. (And, besides, no Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson has won the white vote, anyway.)

“Put your brains back in your head and look at the national polls instead of local, primary polls,” a senior Obama aide told me Tuesday in a phone interview. “In national polls, we win every income group against John McCain except those people making $100,000-plus, where we lose by one point, which is a tie.

“Among white, non-college voters, McCain leads Obama 52-40 and he leads Clinton 52-44. A four-point difference between us and Clinton, well within the margin of error.

“Overall in head-to-head matchups, we are beating McCain by more than she is. And, most importantly, we are winning independents 51-42 against McCain, and Clinton loses independents 49-46 against McCain. Se we are plus nine among independents and she is minus three.”

Obama’s second argument is that the slicing and dicing of the electorate into neat little groups misses what he is about: He is unifying figure. He represents change, he says, and he will attract the votes of people who want change, regardless of the neat boxes that pollsters put them in.

Third, Obama believes he is the victim of a dirty trick. He used that phrase. And all he needs to do, he believes, is get the truth out in order to build his numbers.

He was at Schultzie’s Billiards in South Charleston, W. Va., on Monday when a reporter asked, “How problematic are those rumors ... that you don’t pledge allegiance, that you’re a Muslim? They are out there.”

Obama replied, “They’ve been out there since the beginning of this campaign. This is something that has been systematically fed into the bloodstream. We notice these e-mails get sent out in each successive state that we were campaigning in, which indicates that it is not just a random sort of viral thing. I think you know this is a dirty trick that folks are playing on voters.”

As an antidote to dirty tricks, Obama stated -- once again -- that he is a Christian.

Given the long odds of actually defeating Obama, however, why does Clinton keep running?

Because, she said, Tuesday night, “I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard.”

She has no alternative. Just as sharks swim in order to breathe, candidates run in order to exist.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10332.html

[Tigermike 3,041]

Two or three weeks ago you didn't like Rasmussen. Now you do. Go figure.

A poll is a poll. Take it for what it's worth. And for the record, I don't post what I like...I post relevant items. And this is both surprising and relevant.

So that is why you have posted on the ass whopping Obama received in West Virginia?

It was expected and irrelevant as he already has the nomination locked up.

What's the delegate count now?

[RunInRed 16,438]

Two or three weeks ago you didn't like Rasmussen. Now you do. Go figure.

A poll is a poll. Take it for what it's worth. And for the record, I don't post what I like...I post relevant items. And this is both surprising and relevant.

So that is why you have posted on the ass whopping Obama received in West Virginia?

It was expected and irrelevant as he already has the nomination locked up.

What's the delegate count now?

Obama=Presumptive nominee

Hillary=$20MM in debt

Or something like that...

[Tigermike 3,041]

Two or three weeks ago you didn't like Rasmussen. Now you do. Go figure.

A poll is a poll. Take it for what it's worth. And for the record, I don't post what I like...I post relevant items. And this is both surprising and relevant.

So that is why you have posted on the ass whopping Obama received in West Virginia?

It was expected and irrelevant as he already has the nomination locked up.

What's the delegate count now?

Obama=Presumptive nominee

Hillary=$20MM in debt

Or something like that...

What's the delegate count now?

[RunInRed 16,438]

I know this is really hard information to come by, so I'll help you out:

Obama: 1,884

- 1,600 Pledged

- 284 Superdels

Clinton: 1,718

- 1,445 Pledged

- 273 Superdels

2,026 needed to win

Obama only needs 25 more pledged delegates for a majority. Overall, of the remaining delegates available (about 450), Hillary needs 70% while Obama only needs 3 in 10. So as I said, barring a Clinton miracle, it's a done deal.

[Tigermike 3,041]

I know this is really hard information to come by, so I'll help you out:

Obama: 1,884

- 1,600 Pledged

- 284 Superdels

Clinton: 1,718

- 1,445 Pledged

- 273 Superdels

2,026 needed to win

Obama only needs 25 more pledged delegates for a majority. Overall, of the remaining delegates available (about 450), Hillary needs 70% while Obama only needs 3 in 10. So as I said, barring a Clinton miracle, it's a done deal. (To be precise you did not say that. You said: "What's surprising or relevant about Obama losing by 30 points in West Virginia? It was expected and irrelevant as he already has the nomination locked up.")

So West Virginia is irrelevant. Some of those bitter white people that Obama was talking about I suppose.

So there is a difference of 166 between Obama and Hillary. Obama needs 142 to win the nomination and Hillary needs 308. How many are still up for grabs? Do your figures factor in Michigan and Florida? Or are they irrelevant like West Virginia?

Yes the odds are against her but she is still in the race.

So West Virginia is irrelevant. Some of those bitter white people that Obama was talking about I suppose.

Yeah he is for all of America.

[RunInRed 16,438]

Yes the odds are against her but she is still in the race.

Are you really trying to make this argument?

In unequivicable terms, It's over. Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President.

[Tigermike 3,041]

Yes the odds are against her but she is still in the race.

Are you really trying to make this argument?

In unequivicable terms, It's over. Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President.

Is she still in the race? That is the only point I have been making. She is still there, still plugging away, still making Obama spend money. Unless he plans on writing off the remaining states like he did West Virginia. You still haven't said what will happen about Florida and Michigan. Are they irrelevant like West Virginia?

[RunInRed 16,438]

Yes the odds are against her but she is still in the race.

Are you really trying to make this argument?

In unequivicable terms, It's over. Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President.

Is she still in the race? That is the only point I have been making. She is still there, still plugging away, still making Obama spend money. Unless he plans on writing off the remaining states like he did West Virginia. You still haven't said what will happen about Florida and Michigan. Are they irrelevant like West Virginia?

I think the DNC is supposed to decide on Florida & Michigan on 5/31. I assume they will find some way to seat the delegates. But I think Obama will have enough delegates to secure the nomination even without Florida & Michigan. So in those terms, they are irrelevant.

[Tigermike 3,041]

Yes the odds are against her but she is still in the race.

Are you really trying to make this argument?

In unequivicable terms, It's over. Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President.

Is she still in the race? That is the only point I have been making. She is still there, still plugging away, still making Obama spend money. Unless he plans on writing off the remaining states like he did West Virginia. You still haven't said what will happen about Florida and Michigan. Are they irrelevant like West Virginia?

I think the DNC is supposed to decide on Florida & Michigan on 5/31. I assume they will find some way to seat the delegates. But I think Obama will have enough delegates to secure the nomination even without Florida & Michigan. So in those terms, they are irrelevant.

Will all primaries be over on 5/31? It appears that what you are saying is things will be fixed in a smoked filled back room with the hierarchy of the DNC calling the shots. Florida, Michigan and West Virginia are all irrelevant. So it appears are all other states. Love the way you leftists think!

[RunInRed 16,438]

Yes the odds are against her but she is still in the race.

Are you really trying to make this argument?

In unequivicable terms, It's over. Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President.

Is she still in the race? That is the only point I have been making. She is still there, still plugging away, still making Obama spend money. Unless he plans on writing off the remaining states like he did West Virginia. You still haven't said what will happen about Florida and Michigan. Are they irrelevant like West Virginia?

I think the DNC is supposed to decide on Florida & Michigan on 5/31. I assume they will find some way to seat the delegates. But I think Obama will have enough delegates to secure the nomination even without Florida & Michigan. So in those terms, they are irrelevant.

Will all primaries be over on 5/31? It appears that what you are saying is things will be fixed in a smoked filled back room with the hierarchy of the DNC calling the shots. Florida, Michigan and West Virginia are all irrelevant. So it appears are all other states. Love the way you leftists think!

Anyone else care to try to explain the process and why Michigan and Florida are being "excluded" to this fool? He clearly does not get it. Or maybe he just does not want to.

[Tigermike 3,041]

Yes the odds are against her but she is still in the race.

Are you really trying to make this argument?

In unequivicable terms, It's over. Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President.

Is she still in the race? That is the only point I have been making. She is still there, still plugging away, still making Obama spend money. Unless he plans on writing off the remaining states like he did West Virginia. You still haven't said what will happen about Florida and Michigan. Are they irrelevant like West Virginia?

I think the DNC is supposed to decide on Florida & Michigan on 5/31. I assume they will find some way to seat the delegates. But I think Obama will have enough delegates to secure the nomination even without Florida & Michigan. So in those terms, they are irrelevant.

Will all primaries be over on 5/31? It appears that what you are saying is things will be fixed in a smoked filled back room with the hierarchy of the DNC calling the shots. Florida, Michigan and West Virginia are all irrelevant. So it appears are all other states. Love the way you leftists think!

Anyone else care to try to explain the process and why Michigan and Florida are being "excluded" to this fool? He clearly does not get it. Or maybe he just does not want to.

The only fool here is you. Your guys are the ones doing it.

Will all primaries be over on 5/31? It looks like the fix is in. What should be expected from Chicago politicians. Answer the question Obama Boy.

[RunInRed 16,438]

Yes the odds are against her but she is still in the race.

Are you really trying to make this argument?

In unequivicable terms, It's over. Obama will be the Democratic nominee for President.

Is she still in the race? That is the only point I have been making. She is still there, still plugging away, still making Obama spend money. Unless he plans on writing off the remaining states like he did West Virginia. You still haven't said what will happen about Florida and Michigan. Are they irrelevant like West Virginia?

I think the DNC is supposed to decide on Florida & Michigan on 5/31. I assume they will find some way to seat the delegates. But I think Obama will have enough delegates to secure the nomination even without Florida & Michigan. So in those terms, they are irrelevant.

Will all primaries be over on 5/31? It appears that what you are saying is things will be fixed in a smoked filled back room with the hierarchy of the DNC calling the shots. Florida, Michigan and West Virginia are all irrelevant. So it appears are all other states. Love the way you leftists think!

Anyone else care to try to explain the process and why Michigan and Florida are being "excluded" to this fool? He clearly does not get it. Or maybe he just does not want to.

The only fool here is you. Your guys are the ones doing it.

Will all primaries be over on 5/31? It looks like the fix is in. What should be expected from Chicago politicians. Answer the question Obama Boy.

What fix is in? He's won more pledged delegates, won more states, won more popular vote, and has more superdelegates. Quit dreaming.

[Auburn85 432]

What's surprising or relevant about Obama losing by 30 points in West Virginia? It was expected and irrelevant as he already has the nomination locked up. If you are really interested in this story (enjoy, you can thank me later)....

keep this quote for Kentucky next week too .

It's all about Oregon, at this point West Virginia and Kentucky don't exist.

http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/2008/kentucky.html

Delegates At Stake: 60. Awarded Proportionally

Survey USA

Date: 5/9-11

Kentucky

Hillary Clinton 62%

Barack Obama 30%

Unsure 3%

Other 6%

http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/2008/oregon.html

Delegates At Stake: 65. Awarded Proportionally

Public Policy Polling

Date: 5/10-11

Oregon

Barack Obama 53%

Hillary Clinton 39%

Unsure 7%

Survey USA

Date: 5/9-11

Oregon

Barack Obama 54%

Hillary Clinton 43%

Unsure 2%

Other 2%

Portland Tribune by Davis Hibbitts Midghall

Date: 5/8-10

Oregon

Barack Obama 55%

Hillary Clinton 35%