A Majority of Americans Place Trust in Democrats' Ability to Lead US Economy

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by The Samples
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written May 11, 2007

Those poll obsessed pollsters at Gallup reported today that a majority of Americans are more confident in the Democrats' ability to handle issues related to the economy. Gallup asked people within its sample group to rate the extent to which they have confidence in Democratic leaders in Congress, Republican leaders in Congress, Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and President Bush to “recommend the right thing for the economy.” 54% of those polled said they have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in Democratic leaders. Of the four groups, President Bush had the lowest support with 43% of Americans placing trust in his ability to lead on economic issues. According to Gallup, this is the first time in the seven-year history of this particular pole that a majority of Americans voiced more confidence in Democrats compared to the other three national leaders on economic issues. The bar graph below charts the results of the poll.


Perhaps the most notable finding from the poll, is the percentage of self-described Republicans who placed more trust in the Democratic leaders in Congress to do the right thing for the economy. 34% of Republicans sided with the Democrats whereas 27% of Democrats placed more confidence in the Republican leaders in Congress.




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The Candidates' Perceived Closeness to Bush: An Asset or Liability?

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written on May 3, 2007

So far it appears that John McCain is the lone Republican to be openly critical of President Bush. Will any of the other Republican candidates use tonight’s debate as an opportunity to join McCain in distancing himself from George Bush’s handling of the Iraq war, or the debacle surrounding the firing of the U.S.attorneys, or perhaps the woefully mismanaged Hurricane Katrina disaster response? I can't imagine MSNBC's Chris Matthews not asking at least a few hardball questions with the intent of provoking the candidates to proclaim their support or disapproval of Bush's job performance.

According to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted April 20-24, 76 percent of Republicans said they approved of Mr. Bush’s job performance. That seems to be reason enough for a candidate not to voice sharp criticism of Bush during the debate. However, only 32 percent of overall respondents in the New York Times/CBS News poll said they actually approve of the President’s job performance. As New York Times writer Adam Nagourney notes in his article today, “That is something certain to be on the mind of all the major Republican candidates on Thursday night — aware that they are not speaking, say, to a Republican audience in Dubuque, Iowa, but a national audience watching on MSNBC…”


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Republican Candidates Set to Debate Tonight

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written May 3, 2007
Tonight marks the first televised debate among the ten Republican presidential candidates. The event, slated to run 90 minutes, will be televised by MSNBC, which also carried last week’s Democratic debate. The politico.com is co-sponsoring the event and will stream it live over the internet. In a very cool Web 2.0 twist, the politico is also accepting questions submitted via Internet from visitors to its website. The debate will feature three ten-minute segments during which time the candidates will have 30 seconds to respond to questions submitted from Politico readers. So far, more than 3,000 questions have been submitted. Will my question make the final cut?

With ten candidates in the mix, the debate will surly prove a challenge for any of the candidates to get serious air time. In last week’s debate, Barack Obama claimed the most speaking time with 12 minutes. Tonight’s debate will end up taking the form of an intense elevator pitch competition. Perfect for those of us with short attention spans and a touch of ADD.



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