Spring Break
Landslide
Colin Fraser
Issue date: 10/20/08 Section: Inside WCC
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That and more was clear in the results of an informal poll conducted by the Voice of nearly 150 respondents, among them students, faculty and staff, in the past two weeks.
Obama won more than 64 percent of the vote to just under 20 percent for John McCain, the Arizona Senator. The rest remained undecided with about three weeks to go until the Nov. 4 election.
Preference for vice president was even more pronounced: Joe Biden, Obama's running mate, earned more than 66 percent of the vote to just more than 12 percent for Sarah Palin. In fact, several of those who said they would vote for McCain said they preferred Biden as the best available candidate to hold the second highest political office in the land.
The leading issue on the minds of campus voters: The economy. A colossal 79 percent listed it as the most pressing issue of the day, well ahead of issues such as education, 31.1 percent, the environment, 30.4 percent and the war in Iraq, 29 percent. The war in Afghanistan, family values and health care followed, in that order. (Many of those polled listed more than one issue of concern.)
Nearly 76 percent of respondents support the Washtenaw Community College millage tax renewal. Less than 9 percent said they would vote against it and, remarkably, 16 respondents chose not to answer the question.
The Washtenaw campus community is marginally optimistic that the next president can bring about the changes desperately needed. Fifty responded that they were very optimistic or somewhat optimistic, while 36 said they were very pessimistic or somewhat pessimistic. The majority, 61, said they were neutral on the issue.
But pollsters were split right down the middle regarding their feelings about the future of our nation. Nine said they were very optimistic and nine said they were very pessimistic. Thirty-six said they were somewhat optimistic, and 36 said they were somewhat pessimistic, and 56 were neutral on the issue.
Those who identified themselves as more closely affiliated with the Democratic Party totaled 41 percent, while just 16 percent aligned themselves with the GOP. Another 33 percent said they felt attached to neither party, while 8 percent mentioned affiliations with other parties.
Regarding so-called wedge issues that seem to surface every four years around election time: Forty percent said they feel abortion should remain legal while another 37 percent said it should be legal with limitations. Only 22 percent said abortion should be illegal.
Twenty-eight percent said they believed in evolution while 27 percent said they believed in creationism and 22 percent said they believed in something else.
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