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October 6, 2008

Voters Now Trust Democrats More on All Ten Key Electoral Issues

Voters now trust Democrats more than Republicans on all ten key electoral issues tracked by Rasmussen Reports.

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October 6, 2008

Most Americans Still Say U.S. Is Best Country in the World

Seventy-two percent (72%) of U.S. voters say the United States is the best nation in the world, despite the country’s economic woes and criticism of American foreign policy from abroad.

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October 5, 2008

59% Would Vote to Replace Entire Congress

Congress was front and center in the national news last week and the American people were far from impressed. If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, 59% of voters would like to throw them all out and start over again.

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October 5, 2008

Return to Redistricting Sanity By Debra J. Saunders

As reform measures go, Proposition 11 -- the redistricting reform measure -- is hardly a transformational law likely to supercharge activists (of any political stripe) eager to make Sacramento more effective and more accountable to the public.

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October 4, 2008

New Rasmussen Reports Party Weighting Targets: 39.3% Democrat 33.3% Republican

Like all polling firms, Rasmussen Reports weights its data to reflect the population at large. Among other targets, Rasmussen Reports weights data by political party affiliation using a dynamic weighting process.

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October 4, 2008

45% Say Biden Won Debate, 37% Say Palin

The Vice Presidential debate on Thursday night attracted a bigger television audience than the Presidential debate a week earlier, but is not likely to have much of an impact on the results of Election 2008.

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October 4, 2008

The Year of Campaign Chaos By Michael Barone

Politics ordinarily has a certain predictability. Yet presidential politics this year has often seemed to resemble what science writer James Gleick described in his book "Chaos."

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October 4, 2008

What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending October 3, 2008

Voters 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.

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October 3, 2008

The Palin-Biden Verdict By Debra J. Saunders

She passed. He passed. Palin fared better going against Joe Biden than Katie Couric.

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October 3, 2008

A Heartbeat Away By Susan Estrich

For all the Republicans' complaints about Gwen Ifill, the moderator's questions were softballs compared to what Sarah Palin faced from Katie Couric. Ifill did not demand that Palin list (OK, how about just name more than one?) Supreme Court decisions. She did not push on the issue of foreign policy experience.

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October 3, 2008

63% Say Wall Street, Not Taxpayers, Will Benefit From Bailout Plan

Sixty-three percent (63%) of U.S. voters say Wall Street will benefit more than the average taxpayer from the revised $700-billion economic rescue plan the House is expected to vote on today. Just 22% think the taxpayer will benefit more.

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October 3, 2008

59% Agree With Ronald Reagan—Government Is The Problem

In his first inaugural address, President Ronald Reagan delivered a line succinctly capturing the sentiment that elected him: “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

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October 3, 2008

Democrats Winning the Registration Wars By Rhodes Cook

The presidential debate season is just underway. The polls are in flux. The issue agenda--which has already shifted in the last month from the Sarah Palin effect to "lipstick on a pig" to the nation's worst economic crisis since the Depression--may shift again before Election Day.

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October 3, 2008

There’s More Here than Just the Bailout Package By Lawrence Kudlow

On the morning after Senate passage of the Treasury rescue bill stocks are down 200 points. So there is no silver bullet to our economic woes.

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October 2, 2008

Generic Ballot: Democrats Take Nine-Point Advantage

The Democrats have modestly expanded their lead in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that, if given the choice, 46% of voters would choose their district’s Democratic candidate, while 37% would choose the Republican candidate.

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October 2, 2008

34% Say Veep Debate Key To Their Vote

Just over one-third of voters (34%) say tonight’s vice presidential debate is Very Important to how they will vote, and over half (54%) view Joseph Biden as the more skilled debater, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

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October 2, 2008

Partisan Trends In September: 38.4% Democrats 34.4% Republicans

In September, the number of Americans who consider themselves to be Republicans increased a percentage point from 33.2% in August to 34.4% in September.

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October 2, 2008

Law for Poor Didn't Cause Meltdown By Froma Harrop

Accomplished Googlers can probably find the original talking points off which dozens of conservatives made essentially the same case: The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 caused the financial crisis.

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October 2, 2008

Making the Bailout Less Toxic By Joe Conason

The initial failure to pass bailout legislation reflected a political system as bereft of confidence as the financial markets. President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had no credibility to match the arrogance of their initial demand for absolute power in distributing $700 billion of public assistance (the old synonym for welfare).

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October 2, 2008

Our Bair Necessity By Lawrence Kudlow

You know what? Hank Paulson may not be the most powerful financial person in the country right now. That honor goes to Sheila Bair, the chairman of the FDIC.