WHAT AMERICANS THINK IS IMPORTANT

(h/t smintheus at DKOs)

Judging just by ABC's debate, you would think Pastor Wright & William Ayers would be in the top 5.

From Gallup, ALL AMERICANS

What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today? [Open-ended]

	Recent Trend:	Mar 6-9, 2008	Feb 11-14, 2008	Jan 4-6, 2008
		%	%	%
	ECONOMIC PROBLEMS (NET)	55	49	38
1	Economy in general	35	34	18
2	Fuel/Oil prices	8	3	6
3	Unemployment/Jobs	5	7	5
4	High cost of living/Inflation	4	2	2
5	Federal budget deficit/Federal debt	2	3	2
6	Lack of money	2	2	1
7	Recession	2	1	*
8	Taxes	1	1	2
9	Wage issues	1	--	1
10	Corporate corruption	*	1	1
11	Gap between rich and poor	*	*	1
12	Foreign trade/Trade deficit	*	*	*
	NON-ECONOMIC PROBLEMS (NET)	60	67	75
1	Situation in Iraq/War	21	24	25
2	Poor healthcare/Hospitals; high cost of healthcare	8	12	13
3	Immigration/Illegal aliens	6	9	11
4	Dissatisfaction with government/Congress/ politicians; poor leadership; corruption; abuse of power	5	6	8
5	Ethics/Moral/Religious/Family decline; dishonesty; lack of integrity	4	4	4
6	Education/Poor education/Access to education	4	3	4
7	Terrorism	2	4	5
8	National security	3	2	3
9	Poverty/Hunger/Homelessness	3	2	4
10	Foreign aid/Focus overseas	2	3	3
11	Lack of energy sources; the energy crisis	2	1	2
12	International issues/problems	2	1	3
13	Crime/Violence	1	*	1
14	Judicial system/courts/laws	1	1	1
15	Environment/Pollution	1	1	2
16	Lack of respect for each other	1	2	1
17	Social Security	1	1	1
18	Guns/Gun control	1	--	*
19	Drugs	*	*	1
20	Unifying the country	*	*	1
21	Abortion	*	1	1
22	Race relations/Racism	*	*	*
23	Election year/Presidential choices/Election reform	*	1	1
24	Care for the elderly	*	1	*
25	Homosexuality/Gay rights issues	*	--	*
26	War/Conflict between Middle East nations	*	*	*
27	Welfare	*	*	1
28	The media	*	*	1
29	Overpopulation	*	--	--
	Medicare	--	*	1
	Children's behavior/way they are raised	--	*	*
	Lack of military defense	--	*	*
	Natural disaster relief effort and funding	--	--	*
	Other non-economic	2	5	2
	No opinion	2	3	2
	Total	136%	141%	145%
* Less than 0.5%

From Franklin & Marshall poll, just Pennsylvania Democrats,

The economy continues to gain in importance as an election issue for
Democratic primary voters. Two in five (43%) Democrats say that the economy
will be the most important issue in the race this year, which is up from 29 percent
who gave this response in January. The war in Iraq has been and remains the key
issue for about one-quarter (23%) of Democrats.