Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
As the historic 2008 presidential primary season came to an end, the presumptive Republican and Democratic nominees faced similar dilemmas. Both Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) decided to sever ties with controversial religious figures who had been backing their campaigns. As the general election campaign got under way, both […]
General election matchups find John McCain trailing the Democratic candidates. Obama holds a slight 47%-44% over McCain, which is narrower than his six-point advantage in both April and March. Clinton currently has a 48%-44% lead over McCain, which is largely unchanged from April and March. Looking ahead to the fall election, a critical question is […]
In the last official week of the long and grueling Democratic nomination battle, Barack Obama captured his party’s top prize. But it was Hillary Clinton—by providing most of the week’s suspense and drama—who proved she could still dominate the story line in defeat.
Summary of Findings The American public expressed strong news interest in the earthquake in China last week even as the news media remained heavily focused on the presidential campaign. In spite of modest coverage of both the earthquake in China and the cyclone that hit Burma, the public had a fairly good sense of the […]
What were the dominant personal narratives conveyed in media coverage of the presidential candidates? Which contenders fared best in the press and how critical was that coverage in influencing public opinion? How did those candidate story lines change over time? A new PEJ study of the 2008 primary season examines these questions.
The latest Pew Global Attitudes survey finds some encouraging signs for America’s global image for the first time this decade. Although views of the United States remain negative in much of the world, favorable ratings have increased modestly since 2007 in 10 of 21 countries where comparative data are available. Many people around the world are paying close attention to the U.S. presidential election.
The new wrinkle in last week’s campaign coverage was not the Democrats’ results in Oregon and Kentucky or the flap over Hillary Clinton’s Robert Kennedy comment. It was the story of GOP hopeful John McCain finally morphing from bystander on the sidelines to newsmaker in the headlines.