Post Due 12/07/2010

This graph shows the percentage of people that think the Bush Tax Cuts should stay the same for everybody, regardless of income, keep the tax cuts, but set new limits for wealthy Americans, allow tax cuts for all Americans to expire, and those who have no opinion. The majority of people think that the tax cuts should stay the same/only change for wealthy people. The recession must be a factor in some people's opinions right now. If the wealthy people have tax cuts, they might have more money to invest in the economy. If we let the tax cuts expire, it might lead to jobs being cut. The majority of people think that we should change the tax rates only for the wealthiest people. This is probably because there has been a lot of negative news about 'greedy' wealthy businessmen.

Post Due 11/30/10

This graph shows the estimated spending for Christmas gifts in November of each year. You can see the effects of the current recession on consumer spending since 2008. Between 2007 and 2008, spending dropped from $866 to $616. As you can see, since the drop in 2008 the average spending is in the rise again. Which is a good sign of pulling out of the recession. Something else i found interesting is that the 2007 number of $866 is the highest on the chart. And that just happens to be the year right before the recession. Interesting? I believe so.

Post Due 11/16/10

This graph shows people's feelings about the threat of terrorism since 2001. As you can see, there is a definite decline. Could the results be swayed because of the wording of the question? The question asks what the most important US problem is. So because of the recession, maybe a lot of people pushed terrorism to second place. This could be true, but there has been a steady decline before that. I think that if there were to be another terrorist attack, this would shoot right back up again. People seem to have forgotten about 9/11 and the threat it imposed on us.

Post Due 11/09/10

This week I have a poll that asks Americans how they would describe their political views. Something interesting to look at is the rise in liberalism since 2004, when we sent troops into Iraq. People became more and more liberal until 2008. You can see a 2% drop in liberalism and a 3% rise in conservatism going into 2009. This might have something to do with President Obama being elected or the state of the economy. Overall, you can see that conservatives and moderates have been battling for first place as the most prevalent ideological group. It doesn't surprise me that conservatism is so far ahead of liberalism in the country. I assume that's why some people become so outraged about some politicians "socialist" agenda. Also, I think it's a good thing that moderates are up toward the top, so we aren't a nation full of extremists that can't debate about anything.

Post Due 11/02/10

This week I have a poll asking people to compare their enthusiasm for the midterm with their enthusiasm for voting in the past. They have a trend line for registered voters, and national adults. It looks as though the lines go hand-in-hand. The line has been on a steady increase since 2002. This election has a lot riding on it, so that makes people more inclined to get involved. Unlike elections in the past, this seems to be a very publicized midterm. The president is out campaigning for the democrats in every state, because this election could make or break his re-election in 2012.

Post Due 10/26/10

Today I bring you a chart that describes American's beliefs about unregulated business. As one would expect, Democrats feel most strongly that businesses will harm society if they are not regulated by government. From the numbers, we can also see that Republicans feel more strongly about this topic. 75% of them disagree, compared to the 66% of Democrats that agree with the statement. We can also see that Americans, overall, are slightly more inclined to believe that businesses won't harm society if left unregulated by the government.

Post Due 10/19/10

Today I've got a chart from Gallup that shows American's opinions on openly gay Americans serving in the military in November 2004 and then again in May 2009. This is interesting because every single group of people has had in increase in overall support. One of the biggest surprises is that the group that had the largest change is the Conservatives (12% increase) and the people who attend church weekly (11% increase).

Post Due 10/12/10

This week, I bring you a table that shows which way registered independents are planning on voting in the 2010 elections. The voter turnout percentages are separated into two categories, "higher turnout" and "lower turnout". Which category a respondent falls under is determined by their answers to 7 questions, then they are put into either the "higher turnout" or the "lower turnout" categories. This data shows that the republicans have a strong lead among most independents. Republican leaning independents are more likely to be a "likely voter" than Democratic leaning independents.

Post Due 10/05/10

This week I bring something very interesting to the table. This is a line graph that shows how much confidence people have in the media. The first thing to look at here is the people's opinion of the media after September 11th, 2001. The gap widens a slight amount. Is this a coincidence? The gap might be too small to come to a conclusion. During the next period, 2004-2006, the lines make a dramatic cross. If I remember right, this is about  the time that US troops invaded Iraq. After that, the "% Not very much/None at all" line has been on the rise. Since mid-2007, people have been confused about what to believe. My belief is that people take their feelings of disapproval of governmental decisions and behavior out on the media because their delivering the bad news. I would be interested to see this graph with the four responses have their own trend line (Great deal, Fair amount, Not very much, None at all). This would show us the difference in people who have the extreme opinions.

Post Due 9/28/10

This poll shows the overall favorable ratings of the two major political parties. As you can see, since about the middle of 2005, the Democrats have been in the lead. This is due to the negative attitude toward President Bush and republican policy in general. But in January/February of 2010, they met for the first time in about 5 years.

I also thought this second chart was interesting because it shows the overall unfavorable ratings of the two major political parties. The first thing that jumped out at me from this chart was how choppy it was. It seems that people will have a stronger negative view at times than a positive one.

Post Due 9/21/10

            The poll I have this week is an interesting one. It shows the  number of people since 1957 that think their income taxes are "Too High", "About Right", and "Too Low". The first thing I noticed about this chart is that the "Too Low" line hasn't rose above 3% the entire time. I also noticed that the "Too High" and "About Right" lines adversely effect each other. As if those are the only two options. Another interesting point about this chart is that the first time the "About Right" line rose above the "Too High" line was in 2003, the year that the Bush tax cuts came around. You can also see that in 2009, the lines crossed again.

   

Post Due 9/14/10

        This poll is interesting because is shows that the Iraqi people have gained confidence in their own government from 2008-10. It is also interesting that the approval rating among the Iraqis toward United States leadership has gone down.. This raises the question that if the United States military presence in Iraq has been a positive one among the people or a negative one. Or if they disapprove of other issues in United States leadership.