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.

Obama is now trusted more on all 10 major issues in new Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveys Saturday and Sunday nights. He even has a statistically insignificant one-point lead over McCain in trust on the handling of the war in Iraq. Just two weeks ago, the Republican had an eight-point lead on this issue.

Predictably, 85% of Republicans trust McCain more on Iraq, while 80% of Democrats give the nod to their candidate. But unaffiliated voters trust McCain more by a much narrower 45% to 39% (see full demographic crosstabs).

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Friday night’s debate focused on national security issues, McCain’s strong suit and the area in which he has consistently led Obama in terms of voter trust throughout the year. In a separate survey taken the following night, 36% thought Obama won the debate, 33% gave the advantage to McCain, and 31% were undecided.

Nationally, after weeks of a neck-and-neck race, Obama has been pulling away from McCain for several days in the Rasmussen Reports national daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

Many of the trust issues are volatile, with the two candidates often quite close in surveys over the months and the leads changing with some frequency.

Women continue to trust Obama more across the board, in many instances by sizable majorities. The gap, however, has narrowed dramatically in some cases among men, who have been more favorable to McCain. Men, for example, are now evenly divided at 47% each over which candidate they trust more on the Iraq war.

With Congress and the administration haggling over a $700-billion taxpayer-backed bailout plan for the troubled U.S. economy, 47% of voters trust Obama more to balance the federal budget versus 43% who feel that way about McCain. Similarly, 48% trust the Democrat more on taxes while 45% trust the GOP candidate more.

McCain has generally led in terms of voter trust on the economy issue by a slight margin, particularly in the three weeks leading up to the debate. Last week he proposed delaying the first debate until the bailout plan was approved in Washington, but a plurality of voters (48%) thought that was a bad idea.
Men now trust Obama more on balancing the budget 45% to 44%.

In only one survey since April has Obama led on the taxes issue, primarily because Democrats are viewed as more likely to raise taxes than Republicans. In the new surveys, men remain suspicious of Obama on the taxes issues and still trust McCain more 50% to 44%. Women favor Obama more by similar numbers.

Voters currently trust Democrats overall more on handling the economy but Republicans more on the issue of taxes.

Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters now trust Obama more on negotiating trade agreements, compared to 43% who rate McCain higher. This is an almost exact reversal of the numbers from a survey two weeks ago.

The Democrat has an eight-point lead in terms of trust on Social Security, the widest margin in this area since May.

In two areas where Obama has consistently led McCain for months, health care and the environment, he is now trusted by over half of voters and has record leads on his opponent.

Obama is even trusted more – 43% to 40% - on immigration now, another area where McCain has generally maintained a solid lead for the last couple months. He also leads the Republican 47% to 42% in trust on abortion, an issue where the two men have been largely tied for the past two months.

See survey questions and toplines. Crosstabs for Trust on Issues I and II available for Premium Members only.