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September 27, 2008

Winner of the First Debate: Jim Lehrer

The winner of the first Presidential debate was moderator and PBS television personality Jim Lehrer. After earlier polls showing that most voters expect the moderators to be biased, 76% say Lehrer was neutral.

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September 27, 2008

51% Say Bailout Plan Is A Power Grab

Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans think politicians are more interested in gaining additional power than in fixing the economy with the proposed $700-billion taxpayer-backed financial rescue plan.

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September 27, 2008

Support for Bailout Plan Now Down to 24%

The more voters learn about the proposed $700-billion taxpayer-backed Wall Street rescue plan, the less they like it. Most voters remain largely unworried about their own money, too.

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September 27, 2008

Are We at an Inflection Point? By Michael Barone

You can sum up much of 20th century history by saying that in the 1930s Americans decided that markets didn't work and government did, and that in the 1970s Americans decided that government didn't work and markets did.

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September 27, 2008

What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending September 27, 2008

Official Washington and the two major presidential candidates seem more shook up by Wall Street’s mounting woes than the average taxpayer and voter.

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September 26, 2008

A Paulson-Cantor Plan Is a Win-Win for Taxpayers By Lawrence Kudlow

The single-biggest mistake in the Paulson bank-rescue-plan marketing effort has been the failure to explain clearly how taxpayers are going to recoup $700 billion used to buy toxic assets at auction in order to unfreeze the banking system.

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September 26, 2008

Rasmussen Markets Update: Bailout Bill Likely to Pass

At 1:00 p.m. Eastern on Friday afternoon, Rasmussen Markets data suggested there was a 68% chance the federal bailout bill will pass Congress by the end of this month. Expectations soared as high as 93% yesterday before sinking to a low of 60% early Friday morning.

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September 26, 2008

The Brilliance of McCain's Move By Dick Morris

McCain has transformed a minority in both houses of Congress and a losing position in the polls into the key role in the bailout package, the main man around whom the final package will take shape. He arrived in Washington to find the Democrats working with the Bush Administration to pass an unpopular $700 billion bailout.

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September 26, 2008

Americans Say, Don't Text While You Drive

For younger people especially, text messaging is becoming as common or more common than talking on the cellphone, the latter already the bane of many stuck in heavy traffic. Many states and localities have already restricted cellphone usage in a car, and there's a growing call for limits on text messaging next.

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September 26, 2008

48% Disagree with McCain, Think Debate Should Go On

Nearly half (48%) of voters disagree with John McCain’s request to postpone the first presidential debate tonight because of the country’s ongoing financial problems. Thirty four percent (34%) think McCain is right, and nearly one-out-of-five voters (18%) are undecided.

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September 26, 2008

Remembering Alcee Hastings By Susan Estrich

Alcee Hastings used to be a federal judge. Then he got impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate. Now he's a congressman from Florida. People have a right to vote for whomever they want, even one of the six federal judges in America ever to be removed by Congress.

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September 26, 2008

Voters, Start Your Engines By Cordel Faulk

Presidential debate season is upon us. That means John McCain, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Sarah Palin are traveling around the country with huge binders of prep materials under their arms---and dreams of an eight-year relationship with the Secret Service dancing in their heads.

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September 25, 2008

Generic Congressional Ballot Remains Steady this Week

The Democrats’ lead in the Generic Congressional Ballot has changed little over the past week. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that, if given the choice, 45% of voters would choose their district’s Democratic candidate, while 38% would choose the Republican candidate.

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September 25, 2008

Just 30% Think Government Should Bail Out The Markets

Only 30% of U.S. voters think the federal government should step in to rescue the country’s troubled financial markets, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

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September 25, 2008

Bailing Out the Bailout By Debra J. Saunders

Until Wednesday afternoon, when GOP presidential nominee John McCain announced that he was heading to Washington to work with congressional leaders and the Bushies to craft a better bailout bill, both McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama clearly had believed that the last place they wanted to be seen was in Washington.

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September 25, 2008

Louisiana Politics: Undone by the Wind By Froma Harrop

BATON ROUGE, La. -- I assume that someone has removed the crushed blue Hyundai from the parking lot of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. Two days after Hurricane Ike, the car was there with a tree trunk still embedded in its roof. And Ike was a pussycat next to Gustav, which had pummeled the area two weeks before.

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September 25, 2008

A Special Prosecutor for Wall Street By Joe Conason

Debate over how to resolve the nation's financial emergency is taking a salutary direction for the moment, as politicians of both parties refuse to be herded by the Bush White House into a ridiculous $700-billion swindle.

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September 25, 2008

Give Paulson a Clean Bill By Lawrence Kudlow

Honestly. A clean bill as requested by Treasury man Henry Paulson, along with John McCain’s oversight board, can help fix the credit-crunch problem. It needn’t be this hard.

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September 24, 2008

Palin Still Viewed More Favorably – And Unfavorably – Than Biden

A month after they were named the vice presidential candidates of their respective parties, Sarah Palin is still viewed more favorably by voters than Joseph Biden, 54% to 49%. She also draws stronger feelings - pro and con - in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

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September 24, 2008

Where Did Bill O'Reilly Come From? By Dick Morris

Before or after every speech I ever give, somebody asks me: "What is O'Reilly really like?"