Gallup released polls results this week showing that McCain is catching up with Obama in a general election face off.
There is one area though where McCain hasn’t yet fully caught up: viral online marketing.
Obama Girl
Raining McCain
Would that explain why McCain is trailing Obama in Select2008 Election Face Off?
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Popularity: 65% [?]
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
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
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
Popularity: 90% [?]
The top five most contentious issues on Select2008 paint an interesting picture of the electorate ahead of the important
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.
- Marriage should only be defined as the union between a man and a woman – 46% agree and 46% disagree out of 3,200+ votes and 900+ votes last week
- The U.S. Constitution should define marriage as the union between a man and a woman
- Abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape and to save the life of the mother – 44% agree and 49% disagree out of 1,700+ votes and 700+ votes last week
- Prohibit same-sex marriage, but allow domestic partnerships providing to same-sex partners the same benefits as marriage 44% agree and 48% disagree out of 2,900+ votes and 750+ votes last week
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
- Require illegal immigrants to go back to their country of origin to apply for legal immigration – 47% agree and 43% disagree out of 10,400+ votes and 2,000+votes last week
Finally, the issue of
- The U.S. is making progress in Iraq – 43% agree and 47% disagree out of 2,900+ votes and 800+ votes last week
Popularity: 98% [?]
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
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.
- 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
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.
Popularity: 70% [?]
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
Tax reform
- Eliminate income taxes for 10 million low income taxpayers
- 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
- Raise the Federal minimum wage every year
Popularity: 44% [?]
The War in
Interestingly, extremist and populist positions, such as leaving
As for the War on Terrorism, closing the
The following sample is based on over 450,000 votes on Select2008.com over the last few weeks:
- Maintain a residual
- Reduce the
- The
- Increase
- Support indefinite incarceration in
- The U.S. Congress should stop funding the war in
- Ban the use of torture by American intelligence and law enforcement officers - 51% agree and 38% disagree
Popularity: 26% [?]
The whole gamut of so-called divisive social issues have bubbled up to the top of Select2008.com’s live polling, based on last week’s over 300,000 votes. These issues include same-sex marriage, a constitutional amendment on marriage, partial birth abortion, the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy an