Depressed Economy Wallops States
With calendar 2008 nearing an end, Stateline.org’s annual state-by-state review of major accomplishments finds lawmakers girding for big spending cuts in 2009 and beyond.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Guest Contributor
With calendar 2008 nearing an end, Stateline.org’s annual state-by-state review of major accomplishments finds lawmakers girding for big spending cuts in 2009 and beyond.
Parents and spouses are using the internet and cell phones to create a “new connectedness” that builds on remote connections and shared internet experiences.
Though by no means a perfect instrument, polls make it possible for more opinions, held by a broader and more representative range of citizens, to be known to the government and thus, potentially, heeded.
From Jefferson to Palin, politicians of the left and right have blamed the media for public discontent with their policies, politics or personal behavior.
A week after President Bush signed a $700-billion bailout plan for Wall Street, the financial crisis has deepened in many state capitals with tight credit markets and new, pessimistic budget figures that pose the biggest threat to states’ fiscal health in 25 years.
While strong majorities feel the press has been fair to John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as many people say the press has been too tough on the governor of Alaska (38%) as say it has been fair (38%). Republicans overwhelmingly believe the press has been too hard on Palin (63%).
The plight of Middle Americans has been much invoked by candidates from both parties this election year. Who are these folk? Here’s a self-portrait painted in statistics.
The relative stability in the overall numbers obscures considerable movement in public opinion about the package recently passed by Congress.
View “word clouds” of voters’ impressions of the performances of John McCain and Barack Obama in their first presidential debate based on one-word descriptions from a recent Pew survey.
Members who voted against the original House bill are said to be responding to strong opposition to the rescue plan from their constituents, but that’s not what most Americans are saying.
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