FDU PublicMind - September 9, 2008 Release

Tables

Question: And in the upcoming elections for President of the United States, which candidate are you most likely to vote for…or….?
rotate names		Party ID			age				gender		race		June
N=872	All	Dem	Ind	Rep	18-29	30-44	45-59	60 +	men	wom	white	Non-white	2008
Obama	42												46%
lean Obama	5												3%
Total Obama	47%	85	20	6	46	55	48	39	42	51	37	76	49%
McCain	37												31%
lean McCain	4												2%
Total McCain	41%	8	42	85	38	36	41	46	49	33	51	12	33%
Unsure	11%	6	36	7	10	7	10	13	6	14	10	10	15%
neither / other	2%	1	3	2	6	2	1	2	3	1	1	3	3%

Note: in asking voters their preference for president, at random half were simply asked their preference between the candidates “John McCain, the Republican” and “Barack Obama, the Democrat” while the other half were asked their preference between the “tickets” of “John McCain and Sarah Palin, the Republicans” and “Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the Democrats.” There were no significant differences in the results. The table below compares answers for each randomly assigned group.

And in the upcoming elections for President of the United States, which candidate/ticket are you most likely to vote for…or….?
N=439 MoE= +/-5	All	N=433 MoE= +/-5	All
“Barack Obama, the Democrat”	42	“Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the Democrats”	41
lean Obama	4	lean Obama/Biden	7
Total Obama	46%	Total Obama/Biden	47%
“John McCain, the Republican”	38	“John McCain and Sarah Palin, the Republicans”	37
lean McCain	3	lean McCain/Palin	4
Total McCain	41%	Total McCain/Palin	41%
unsure	11%	unsure	10%
neither/other	3%	neither/other	1%

Question: Do you think [NAME] is a good choice for Vice President or not a good choice?
Rotate names		All	Dem	Ind	Rep	men	wom	voted for Clinton in primary
Joe Biden	good choice	64%	78	61	48	66	63	75
	Not good	22%	11	17	38	24	19	16
	Unsure	14%	10	22	14	10	17	9
Sarah Palin	good choice	47%	22	49	78	53	40	21
	Not good	34%	55	29	9	32	36	56
	Unsure	19%	22	22	12	15	24	23

Question: Do you recall who you voted for in the Presidential primary election back in February?
	Democratic Primary Election Vote
	Voted for Clinton	All other Democrats
Barack Obama	71	79
lean Obama	10	7
Total Obama	81%	86%
John McCain	8	6
lean McCain	2	1
Total McCain	10%	7%
unsure	11%	5%
Neither/other	--	2%

Question: In deciding your vote for President, would you say the race of the candidate is….READ			Question: And for other voters this year, do you think the race of the candidate is….READ?
	Current	June		Current	June
The single most important factor	9%	8%	The single most important factor	15%	15%
One of several important factors	17%	16%	One of several important factors	41%	46%
Not an important factor	73%	74%	Not an important factor	32%	28%
unsure (VOL)	1%	3%	unsure (VOL)	12%	11%

Question US1: In your opinion, do you believe that the country is moving in the right direction or do you believe it has gotten off on the wrong track?
	All	Dem.	Ind.	Rep.	Men	Women
Right direction	19	9	16	33	21	17
Wrong track	72	87	70	52	68	75
Unsure	9	4	13	15	11	8
*June 08*
Right direction	15%	10	14	26	14	16
Wrong track	74%	83	76	60	77	72
Unsure	10%	7	10	14	9	12
*April-08*
Right direction	18%	11%	9%	34%	22%	15%
Wrong track	69%	82%	70%	49%	67%	72%
Unsure/don’t know	12%	7%	21%	17%	12%	13%
*Feb. ‘08*
Right direction	21%	13	22	34	24	18
Wrong track	66%	80	60	49	68	65
Unsure	13%	6	17	17	8	17
*Jan-08*
Right direction	19%	10	17	33	22	16
Wrong track	74%	87	74	54	72	76
Unsure	8%	4	9	13	6	8
*Nov-07*
Right direction	18%	7	12	41	23	13
Wrong track	71%	84	75	46	68	74
Unsure	11%	9	12	14	9	13
*Sep-07*
Right direction	20%	8	15	45	20	20
Wrong track	67%	84	74	35	68	67
Unsure	13%	9	11	20`	13	13

Question US2: In general, do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as President?
	All	Dem	Ind	Rep	Jun ‘08	Apr ‘08	Feb ‘08	Jan '08	Oct '07	Sep ‘07	Jun ‘07
Approve	22%	4	12	48	18	26	23	23	26	27	24
Disapprove	71%	94	75	41	75	68	65	69	66	65	68
Unsure/ref.	7%	1	13	11	7	6	11	7	7	8	8

Question US3: Now, turning to Iraq… How well is the U.S. military effort in Iraq going…?
	All	D	I	R	Jun ‘08	Apr ‘08	Feb ‘08	Jan '08	Oct '07	Jun ‘07
Very well	19%	4	15	41	9	10	13	12	10	5
Fairly well	33%	27	43	40	32	29	32	27	25	21
Not too well	24%	35	18	11	31	29	27	27	30	30
Not at all well	17%	27	15	5	23	26	22	27	28	37
Unsure/Ref.	6%	7	8	3	4	6	7	7	7	6

Question US4: Considering everything, do you think the United States did the right thing in going to war with Iraq, or do you think it was a mistake?
	All	Party			Jun	Apr	Feb	Jan	Oct	Jun
		D	I	R	‘08	‘08	‘08	‘08	‘07	‘07
Right thing	28%	9	27	55	24	28	28	27	27	28
Mistake	63%	87	60	34	69	64	62	65	62	61
Unsure/Ref.	8%	4	14	10	7	7	9	8	10	10

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