During this election season, strong differences have emerged in gender preferences for presidential candidates.
These gender differences were highlighted by many polls during the prolonged Democratic primary season and were confirmed after Senator Clinton withdrew from the race.
- “While campaigning for president, Clinton demonstrated an especially strong appeal to women.”
- “Obama’s recent gains in the polls have been greatly aided by increased support from female voters. Now that Clinton is no longer campaigning and the focus of voters’ decision-making is a choice between Obama and McCain, female voters may be taking a second look at Obama.”
We are extremely pleased to launch iSelect2008.com to empower women for the 2008 election.
The site brings all the collective intelligence and great content from Select2008, but offers a customized face off quiz to help women understand how Obama and McCain address women’s concerns and support women’s interests.
We are working with Glam and Glam.com and hope to bring this site to their uniquely large women audience, as a Publisher Network Affiliate.
McCain and Obama traded barbs over the last couple of days on Al Qaeda, Iran, Iraq, and their respective experience and judgment in National Security. Senator McCain went back and forth over the last couple of days about Iraq, Iran, Al Qaeda, the broader issue of radical Islam and the war on terror.
His comments on the Iran-Al Qaeda relationship incensed the Democratic blogosphere, which qualified them as a “gaffe”. Obama also took advantage of a scheduled talk in North Carolina to criticize his confusion and undermine his alleged national security experience.
Some bloggers and reporters seem to indicate though that his connection seems more of a gray area. Regardless, his campaign went back at Obama, pounced on the supposed connection and highlighted McCain’s alleged experience in foreign affairs.
This clash on the 5th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq gives an opportunity to revisit the top questions on the broader Middle East. Iran is indeed a key concern. Americans seem eager to avoid repeating the process that led them into Iraq. Al Qaeda remains also a key concern:
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?
First, key social issues – same-sex marriage and abortion – remain as divisive as ever in the electorate. These issues are currently eclipsed by the partisan nature of the primaries. However, as we enter the general election season, we expect these issues will come back to the forefront.
The issues of illegal immigration and earned legalization process are also very sensitive. It will be interesting to see how this issue plays with the electorate, not only at the presidential level, but also at State and local levels, especially in border states. McCain’s about face on the matter does not shield him from criticism on his right.
Finally, the issue of Iraq is coming back to the forefront. The apparent and relative improvement of the situation on the ground is reflected in voters’ opinion. If the conflict stays on this track, Iraq will increasingly play to McCain’s strengths vs. Clinton’s and Obama’s anti-war stances.
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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.
