Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Read our research on:
A large majority of voters (72%) believe that Bush and Kerry take different positions from each other on the issues, compared with 19% who see their positions as similar. That is up slightly from June, when 68% saw differences between the candidates’ positions. Far more voters see clear distinctions between the candidates than did so […]
Summary of Findings By two-to-one, voters who watched the first presidential debate believe that John Kerry prevailed. But the widely viewed Sept. 30 showdown did not result in a sea change in opinions of the candidates. As a consequence, George W. Bush continues to have a much stronger personal image than his Democratic challenger, while […]
Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks, and more than a year after the start of the war in Iraq, the public takes a paradoxical view of America’s place in the world. Nearly half of Americans (45%) say the United States plays a more important and powerful role as world leader than it did 10 […]
Summary of Findings Sen. John Kerry enters the Democratic convention next week bolstered by a number of favorable trends in public opinion, although he remains locked in a statistical tie for voter support with President George W. Bush. His party is dominant on key domestic issues and at least competitive with the Republicans on every […]
The most prevalent message about the character of the candidates in the news media is that President Bush is “stubborn and arrogant.” This is followed closely by the idea that Bush “lacks credibility.” The third most common message in the press, however, is a positive one about the President, the idea that he is a […]
The second phase of this study was a survey of the public by the Pew Research center for the People and the Press to see if the narrative themes about the candidates in the press were having an impact on public attitudes. While the public perceptions of the candidates character traits do not match precisely […]
The rapid growth of the Latino population has been a subject of intense public attention since the 2000 Census reported a 58% increase over the 1990 total and later Census Bureau estimates concluded that Hispanics had surpassed African Americans in number.
The press coverage, for now, has focused far more on Bush than on Kerry. Seven out of ten (72%) of the character themes identified in the coverage were about the President. In part, this is a reflection of the fact that Bush dominates the news as the incumbent, whether he is governing the country or […]