Opinion: Pew Poll: Voter interest high, but media tougher on GOP, especially Sarah Palin
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This historic presidential election -- which will produce America’s first African American president or first female vice president and only the third sitting senator to win the White House -- is drawing significantly more citizen interest than other recent elections.
A new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press finds that about four weeks before the presidential balloting, 61% of registered voters say they are following the races very closely.
That compares with 52% just before the end of the 2004 campaigns and only 39% before the end of the 2000 presidential race.
As another measure of interest, especially surrounding Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, 76 of every 100 registered voters said they watched at least some of the recent vice presidential debate. Far more than watched the main presidential chats.
Perhaps not coincidentally, this is also the longest presidential competition in history, with candidates mostly announcing their candidacy during the first few weeks of 2007.
By comparison, Sen. John F. Kennedy formally announced his presidential bid on Jan. 2 of the actual election year in 1960.
The same poll also found strong majorities judging the media’s coverage of the candidates as generally fair -- except when it comes to Palin. According to the poll, the media are consistently tougher on the Republican candidates, Palin and Sen. John McCain, than on the Democrats -- Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Only 7% of voters thought the media have been too tough on Obama and barely 5% on Biden. But 23% of poll respondents said the media have been too tough on the veteran McCain and 37% thought the same about Palin.
Views of Palin are highly partisan, but even 41% of independents thought the media were too harsh on Palin.
Thirty-one percent of voters thought the media had treated Obama too easy (Biden’s number was 21%). Twenty-one percent thought Palin got too easy coverage, and only 15% thought that way about the Republican presidential candidate.
Complete poll results are available here. But first, a quick quiz: We mentioned at the top that Obama or McCain would be only the third sitting senator to win the White House. Who are the other two?
Get the answer by clicking on the Read more line below here.
--Andrew Malcolm
Another poll finds that 100% of people who register here at Twitter get instant alerts of each new Ticket item flashed to their cell. And it’s free.
John F Kennedy and Warren G. Harding, all 20th century chief executives.