Economy Most Important Issue, and Still Rising

Business Wire, Oct 23, 2008

Fewest ever (11%) say country is going in right direction

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- As the financial and economic crisis deepens, the latest edition of The Harris Poll[R] finds that the economy, which was already at the top of the list of concerns for Americans, has moved even farther ahead of all other issues that people want the government to address. According to some of the findings of a new Harris Poll of 1,027 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone between October 16 and 19, 2008 by Harris Interactive([R]):

* Fully 64% of adults now feel that the economy is one of the two most important issues for the government to address. This is up from 54% in September and 43% in August. It is also the first time that any issue has topped 60% in a Harris Poll;

* Other issues to be mentioned by more than 5% of adults are health care (22%, almost unchanged from 21% in September), "the war" (14%), Iraq (7%), education (6%) and taxes (6%).

This Harris Poll also tracked the President's ratings and key trends:

* President Bush's ratings (24% positive and 75% negative) continue to be equal to his lowest-ever ratings in April and September of this year;

* Ratings of others in the President's administration are also low where just one in five Americans give Vice President Cheney positive ratings while almost three-quarters (73%) give him negative ones, almost unchanged from June (18% positive and 74% negative). Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice continues to be the "star" of political leaders as 44% of Americans give her job positive ratings while 51 % give her negative ratings, a small improvement from June (39% positive and 54% negative);

* Just one in ten Americans (11%) say that the country is going in the right direction while 83% say it is going on the wrong track. This breaks the previous low of 12% occurring during President George H.W. Bush's administration in June of 1992

* An even larger 86% to 10% majority gives Congress negative ratings, worse than the 83% to 13% who felt this way in June;

* Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is also close to her lowest ratings as just one-quarter (25%) give her positive job ratings and 64% give her negative ratings; and,

* The ratings of the Republicans (77% negative) and the Democrats (74% negative) in Congress are both at or very close to their historic lows.

So What?

With less than two weeks until Election Day the economy now overwhelms all other issues. With the exceptionally low approval ratings for almost all of the politicians, parties or institutions rated here, this shows that this is an electorate that is unhappy, focused on one central issue and, most likely, looking for someone to blame. Historically, when these events occur together, the party in power is thrown out of power. But with a Republican White House and a Democratic Congress, which party will be thrown out of power? In 1992, when there was also economic uncertainty and very low "right direction" numbers, Democrats swept. But, two years later Republicans won control of Congress. Is this a similar situation? Only time will tell.

Methodology

The Harris Poll([R]) was conducted by telephone within the United States between October 16 and 19, 2008 among a nationwide cross section of 1,027 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region, number of adults in the household, size of place (urbanicity) and number of phone lines in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Full data tables and methodology for this study can be found at www.harrisinteractive.com.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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QA1, QA2, QA3

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

Harris Interactive Inc. 10/08