Select2008 Blog - Comparing and tracking the 2008 presidential candidates

Hillary Clinton reaffirmed her opposition to the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, as President Bush decided to send the FTA to Congress. This statement is not a departure from Clinton’s rather restrictive positions on free trade. However it follows the controversy over Clinton’s chief strategist recent support of Colombian efforts, as part of his lobbying activities.

You can express and share your opinions on free trade agreement by answering some Select2008 questions:

- Support ratifying the free trade agreement with Colombia

- Negotiate new free trade agreements

- Renegotiate NAFTA

Popularity: 50% [?]

Yesterday, Barack Obama made a speech in Philadelphia yesterday about Reverend Wright, race and religion.

You can find the entire speech on the Select2008 Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Select2008

The response to Obama’s speech on the blogosphere is overwhelming. Will this speech help him preserve his lead in the Clinton vs. Obama Face Off? Will the speech help Obama catch up with Clinton in Pennsylvania, who according to latest polls is edging over?

Popularity: 83% [?]

This post is the third and last part of our analysis of voters’ support for Clinton and Obama healthcare plans. It reviews voters’ support for mandatory healthcare, a key difference between Clinton’s and Obama’s health care plans.

Obama’s plan will not provide healthcare to approximately 15 million US residents, by all estimates. However, voters seem to see the glass half full rather than half empty here and a 2/3 majority supports the Obama plan in that regard.

Small business employees are much less likely to receive health insurance through their employers. Voters support requiring small businesses to provide health insurance with a 2 to 1 majority.

Mandatory health care seems to receive broad support across voters. A strong majority both recognizes it as a key to achieving universal healthcare and an action item for the next President.

The analysis above reviews over 60,000 expressed opinion on healthcare on over 200 questions that cover the whole gamut of health care proposals for the 2008 primaries and presidential elections. The most important and selective questions on Select2008 on universal health care are the following ones:

- Propose a universal healthcare plan that covers at least 32 million out of the 47 million uninsured U.S. residents – 64% agree and 28% disagree out of 2,000+ votes/ 500+ votes this week

- Require small businesses to provide healthcare insurance to their employees – 60% agree and 31% disagree out of 8,000+ votes/ 1,200+ votes this week

- Mandatory health insurance is the key to achieving universal healthcare – 55% agree and 35% disagree out of 7,500 votes/ 1,400+ votes this week

- Make healthcare insurance mandatory for all U.S. residents – 62% agree and 31% disagree out of 8,800+ votes/ 1,500+ votes this week

Popularity: 100% [?]

This post is the second part of our analysis of voters’ support for Clinton and Obama healthcare plans. It reviews the tricky issue of funding universal health care.

Funding a universal healthcare plan raises a host of very interesting issues. Voters would overwhelmingly rather have the plan being self sustained through cost reallocation and savings. However, most experts agree that universal healthcare cannot be achieved without additional funding. Voters seem to have caught on to it and a majority of voters support funding in ranges in line with those of Clinton’s and Obama’s universal healthcare plans.

On the other hand, raising taxes to achieve universal healthcare is more contentious. Voters support repealing the Bush tax breaks to fund universal healthcare. However, a strong majority seems to oppose raising taxes across the board for universal healthcare. These conflicting views in the electorate hold the promise for a lively debate on universal health care, as we move closer to the November 4 election.

The analysis above reviews over 60,000 expressed opinion on healthcare on over 200 questions that cover the whole gamut of health care proposals for the 2008 primaries and presidential elections. The most important and selective questions on Select2008 on universal health care are the following ones:

- Raise taxes to achieve universal healthcare – 40% agree and 54% disagree out of 4,000+ votes/ 650+ votes this week

- Repeal Bush’s tax breaks to fund universal healthcare – 52% agree and 34% disagree out of 1,700+ votes / 300+ votes this week

- Propose a universal healthcare plan costing $90 billion to $120 billion per year – 56% agree and 25% disagree out of 4,300 votes/ 800+ votes this week

- Propose a universal healthcare plan costing $50 billion to $70 billion per year – 43% agree and 35% disagree out of 1,300 votes/ 250+votes this week

- Propose a universal healthcare plan financed without raising taxes by saving costs and reallocating funds – 61% agree and 27% disagree out of 1,600+ votes/ 250+ votes this week

Popularity: 98% [?]

This post is the first part of our analysis of voters’ support for Clinton and Obama healthcare plans. It reviews voters’ support for universal health care.

Only a slight majority of voters supports universal health care, which hints at a spirited debate as we move into the general election phase. Obama’s plan seems to provide a solid baseline to move towards universal health care, since a 2/3 majority supports a “partially” universal health care plan, which would still leave 15 million people uninsured.

To the contrary, support for universal health coverage for catastrophic health problems only seems much narrower than a broader universal health care plan. Interestingly, the electorate seems to expect the Federal government to be a key catalyst of universal healthcare, as voters dismiss the idea of curbing Federal government’s role in healthcare.

The analysis above reviews over 60,000 expressed opinion on healthcare on over 200 questions that cover the whole gamut of health care proposals for the 2008 primaries and presidential elections. The most important and selective questions on Select2008 on universal health care are the following ones:

- Achieve universal healthcare as quickly as possible - 49% agree and 42% disagree out of 1950+ votes in 2008 / 280+ votes this week;

- Propose a universal healthcare plan that covers at least 32 million out of the 47 million uninsured U.S. residents – 64% agree and 28% disagree out of 2,000+ votes in 2008 / 500+ votes this week;

- Provide universal coverage for catastrophic healthcare issues only – 44% agree and 40% disagree out of 1,400+ votes in 2008 / 250+ votes this week;

- Limit the Federal government’s role in healthcare and curb large entitlement programs – 40% agree and 48% disagree out of 3600+ votes in 2008/ 800+ votes this week.

Popularity: 97% [?]

Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have debated their health care plans in great details when they met on stage in Cleveland, OH last Tuesday. Their health care plans showcase significant differences between them and are also very telling about their likely government and leadership styles.

Select2008’s exclusive online polling has gathered over 500,000 expressed opinions over the month of February over the whole spectrum of election issues. We have taken a closer look at health care issues to gauge voters’ support for some of Clinton’s and Obama’s key proposal.

The Select2008 Blog took a closer look at the following issues and reviews them in details in the subsequent blog posts:

- Universal Healthcare - Select2008.com’s Exclusive Look at Voters’ Support for Universal Health Care in Clinton’s and Obama’s Plans

- Financing Universal Health Care - Select2008.com’s Exclusive Look at Voters Support for Financing Clinton’s and Obama’s Universal Health Care Plans

- Mandatory Health Care - Select2008.com’s Exclusive Look at Voters’ Support for Mandatory Health Care

The analysis is based on over 43,300 votes and 7,800 votes this week, i.e. substantially enough votes to make this analysis substantive. As noted before, readers can also further track election issues and particular questions on the Select2008 website. The newly redesigned face off vote page also displays live polling data, as users go through and answer the questions.

Popularity: 77% [?]

The top economic questions on Select2008 these last few days reflect voters key concerns with the current economy, from home ownership and government bail out of foreclosures, free trade and NAFTA, and tax reform, as well as key proposals from Clinton, Obama, and McCain.

Select2008 has improved the reporting on each questions, with charts helping you track the popularity of an issue week after week. We encourage you to visit these question pages.

Mortgage issues

- Establish a $1 billion fund to assist State programs that help at-risk borrowers avoid foreclosures

- The Federal government has to do more to help reduce home foreclosures

Free trade

- Withdraw from NAFTA

Tax reform

- Eliminate income taxes for 10 million low income taxpayers

- Roll back the Bush tax cuts

- Raise the tax rate on dividend and capital gains to fund tax benefits for the working class

- Lower the tax rates on interests, dividends and capital gains to zero

Retirement age and Federal minimum wage

- Extend the retirement age

- Raise the Federal minimum wage every year

Popularity: 49% [?]

Last night’s debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama put on display some key differences between the two candidates’ platform and positions, but did not reveal much new about them.

Key policy and programmatic differences in the Clinton vs. Obama Face Off concern domestic issues – such as healthcare, immigration, and retirement - and foreign affairs issues – including diplomacy, free trade, and the war in Iraq. The summary below also includes links to the corresponding questions on Select2008.

Foreign Affairs – Clinton and Obama have strongly disagreed on several foreign affairs-related issues:

- Obama stated his support in favor of talking with leaders of ‘rogue’ nations without preconditions, including the Iranian leadership and the newly-nominated Cuban leader, Raul Castro;

- the two candidates further disagree on normalizing relations with Cuba;

- Clinton supported the Senate resolution on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, while Obama asserted that the Senate resolution on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was paving the path for a military engagement with Iran;

- The two candidates also disagree on having the U.S. join the International Criminal Court;

Free Trade – Free trade was a divisive issue during the primaries campaign, as candidates faced a softening economy; this issue is particularly sensitive ahead of the Ohio primaries. Although both candidates supported the Peru free trade agreement, they disagree on key free trade issues: negotiate new free trade agreements and renegotiate NAFTA;

War in Iraq – Clinton and Obama have had differences over the War in Iraq from the onset back in 2002; the two candidates also disagree on the way forward on Iraq, either by federalizing Iraq along sectarian lines, or by following the conclusions from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, as well as the size and mission of the U.S. “residual” force in Iraq;

Universal Healthcare – Both candidates have come out in favor of Universal Healthcare. However, Clinton’s Universal healthcare plan differs quite significantly from Obama’s healthcare plan, including on issues as fundamental as:

- universal coverage for all Americans,

- mandatory coverage for all Americans,

- drugs reimportation,

- means-tested tax credits for healthcare insurance,

- health insurance for small business employees, and

- access to the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program

Immigration – On immigration, the two candidates have disagreed on mainly two issues: the support for driving licenses for undocumented immigrants and the scope of an earned legalization program for undocumented immigrants.

Retirement – Both Clinton and Obama have made proposals on retirement to ensure Social Security’s future, guarantee its defined benefit pensions, and facilitate retirement savings. However, the candidates have disagreed on key measures to maintain Social Security’s funding into the future, such as raising or eliminating the cap on Social Security taxable income to prevent benefit cuts for future retirees, and levying Social Security taxes on income revenues higher than $200,000/year.

Popularity: 54% [?]

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are furiously campaigning to rally voters for the Super Tuesday vote. They will spend an record $19 million in ads over the next few days to sway voters in the 22 States that hold a primary this Tuesday.

With just a few days ahead and a surge in votes on Select2008 over the last few days, Obama appears to be leading over Clinton on the issues, 49% to 45%. A closer look reveals that Obama’s positions and proposals lead on the key issues of defense, economy, government reform, healthcare, and international affairs. Clinton leads on homeland security and education.

Popularity: 64% [?]

Ahead of the Super-Tuesday primaries contest of next week, we have tracked down the five key international issues on which Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama disagree:

- Defense: the candidates disagree on the size of the necessary increase of the U.S. military and veterans healthcare benefits funding;

-