Public Opinion Strategies, a major GOP-leaning polling firm, released some of its polling for the 2004 election cycle. It?s interesting and speaks to the controversy last month about which issue was the central one in explaining the presidential outcome. As I wrote at the time, no one issue can be selected as the reason why a candidate wins in a close election of varying factions. You have to bring your whole coalition, your whole team to the game to win.
That having been said, Public Opinion Strategies shows again that if you have to pick a single issue to signify the 2004 vote, it is foreign affairs. Here’s the trend line on the POS question about voters? top election concerns (they could apparently choose more than one):
ISSUES…..for the years 1996/2000/2004
Global/Security……………. 6%/10%/61%
Economic/Fiscal…………….54%/39%/34%
Moral/Social…………………36%/44%/30%
Health Care/Schools………29%/43%/18%
Soc Security/Medicare…… 9%/30%/ 3%
