Select2008 Blog - Comparing and tracking the 2008 presidential candidates

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: 50% [?]

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: 66% [?]

The three major Democratic candidates to the 2008 Presidential election – Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama – have all recently released an economic stimulus package, as the softness of the U.S. economy comes into focus.

These plans include quite a few repurposed proposals, which are now being legitimized by the sudden worsening of the economy. Clinton and Edwards seize the opportunity to tout their “green” initiatives, as a way to boost the economy and convert blue collar jobs to “green collar” jobs.

There are three sets of differences between these plans: their respective size (from $25 billion to $75 billion without supplementals), their conduits (from tax cuts to direct hand outs) and their main beneficiaries among the working and the middle class, the retirees, the home owners hit by the subprime crisis, and the unemployed workers.

The charts below show that Clinton’s key measures focus on home owners impacted by the subprime crisis, as well as people hit by the rising cost of energy. On the other hand, Obama’s key measures are a large tax cut to the working and middle class and additional hand outs to retirees in need.

Popularity: 19% [?]