THE PISS-POOR RECORD OF THE REPUBLIKS IN THE 20Th CENTURY.

Yup.......For all their Yap-Flapping, the REPUBLIKS have FAILED

MIZERABLY SINCE 1854..........2008 looms and the Pathetic GOP have

NOTHING MORE to look forward to.........The REPUBLIK Party is TORN

APART by the Campaigns of The Former T.V STAR and MORMON

ROMNEY........President Bush will be SUCKING Their Mizerable Asses

the

WHOLE YEAR........The Economy is DRAGGING ALONG and Iraq is GOING ON

FOREVER........America is FIT & TRIM and the RIGHT WING Pukes are

TOTALLY

MIZERABLE.........GAWD!!........I LOVE

IT!!........Heehee.........Ain't It GRAND?...........

WEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By JIM KUHNHENN and TREVOR TOMPSON, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Voters began to worry more about their pocketbooks

over the last month -- even more than about the war in Iraq.

More than half the voters in an ongoing survey for The Associated

Press and Yahoo! News now say the economy and health care are

extremely important to them personally. They fear they will face

unexpected medical expenses, their homes will lose value or mortgage

and credit card payments will overwhelm them.

Events, however, can quickly change public opinion. Thursday's

assassination of Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto could draw

more attention to terrorism and national security, an issue that still

ranked highly with the public and which 45 percent of those polled

considered extremely important.

This latest AP-Yahoo! News survey of more than 1,800 people by

Knowledge Networks offers a unique opportunity to track changes in

public attitudes as the presidential campaign unfolds. The first poll

was last month and set a base line to measure national sentiment.

In the new results, men and women approaching retirement were

especially attentive to the economy and health care, with six out of

10 ranking both issues extremely important. Politically, the attention

to such domestic issues hangs darkly over Republicans. Voters say they

are far more likely to trust Democrats to handle the economy and

health care.

Consider Linda Zimmerman, a 50-year-old sheep farmer from Thurmont,

Md. Her daughter and son-in-law are having trouble keeping up with two

mortgages on a town house, she said. One street in her neighborhood

has five homes for sale, and one has been on the market for two years.

Registered as a Republican, she's ready to reconsider.

"We're Republicans and I'm very unhappy with them, and I've been

watching the Democrats," she said. "We did better when (Bill) Clinton

was in than we did with Bush. It's just terrible."

The Democratic edge on such issues illustrates the predicament

Republicans face going into a presidential election. Iraq doesn't

dominate the news as it used to, replaced by headlines about slumping

home sales, high gasoline prices and a credit crunch.

The impact of Bhutto's assassination on public opinion depends on

whether Americans perceive her death as an added threat to the United

States. Terrorism was the only issue polled that Republicans were

trusted to handle better than Democrats.

Republican Rudy Giuliani had benefited most from people's fears of

terrorism. But over the past month his level of support dropped, even

among voters who said terrorism was an important issue. Giuliani is

now trying to get some of those voters back, releasing an ad Thursday

that uses images of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on New York.

All in all, though, voters appear to be weighing other issues at least

as heavily as the country heads into the first voting of the

presidential election.

Financial worries have risen in prominence. Forty-eight percent of

those polled said Social Security is extremely important to them, up

from 42 percent in November. That's virtually the same as the 46

percent who considered Iraq extremely important.

These new public concerns are reflected on the campaign trail, where

candidates are hitting domestic topics hard. There too, Democrats have

an edge over Republicans when it comes to connecting with their core

voters.

Overall, 42 percent of Democrats are very or extremely satisfied with

the amount of attention their favored candidates are giving to the

issues that matter most to them. Only 32 percent of Republicans feel

that way about their candidates. Of all the candidates, Democrat

Barack Obama gets the best rating among his supporters.

Bill Hine, a 65-year-old Vietnam veteran from Warrenton, Va.,

considers himself a "soft Republican" who is partial to John McCain.

But the nation's health system needs fixing, he said, and he's not

happy with what he's hearing.

"A lot of Republicans are just anti-anything, anti-changing anything,

and that's one of the things I'll be looking at," he said.

Six out of 10 people polled said they believe it is at least somewhat

likely that the U.S. economy will enter a recession next year.

Slightly more -- 64 percent -- said they worried about a major

unexpected medical expense, and 55 percent worried that the value of

their stocks and retirement investments would drop.

Forty-four percent said they were concerned that the value of their

homes would decrease during the next six months. That sentiment was

especially strong in the mountain states.

"Middle class America is being chipped away at," said Edward Lemieux,

a 57-year-old pattern maker from North Smithfield, R.I., who plans to

support Obama for president.

His view is influenced by the flight of manufacturing jobs from his

state, by the "For Sale" signs that outnumber the "Sold" signs on

neighborhood lawns and by his mother's health care needs.

"We're all of a sudden becoming a country of rich and poor," he said.

"The middle class is eroding."

Despite those worries, respondents have grown slightly more optimistic

about the direction of the nation during the past month. Nearly three

out of 10 say the country is on the right path, compared with 24

percent last month. This uptick in the national mood is evident in

both parties, though it's much stronger among Republicans. Still, more

than seven out of 10 said they believe the U.S. is headed down the

wrong track.

Interest in immigration -- a major issue in the Republican presidential

contest -- remained the same as last month, with 37 percent saying it

was an extremely important issue. But for all the candidates' efforts

to distinguish themselves on that issue, the poll found that none of

the leading contenders holds an advantage among Republicans who feel

most strongly about immigration.

Sentiments on health care and the economy could make a difference in

the Democratic contest.

Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards supporters have much stronger

feelings about the economy and Social Security than Obama voters.

Edwards has staked his campaign on a message of economic populism,

while Clinton draws 40 percent of her support from people with

household incomes of less than $25,000, far more than her rivals.

Clinton, Obama and Edwards have been feuding over who would provide

the most comprehensive health care plan.

Nearly two-thirds of voters polled said the United States should adopt

a universal health insurance program "in which everyone is covered

under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and

financed by taxpayers." Fewer, but still a majority at 54 percent,

said they supported a single-payer system whereby all Americans would

get their health insurance through a taxpayer-financed government

plan.

Lynn Haynes, 42, of Huntington, W.Va., works in the state government's

welfare department where she sees clients who can't afford health

care. What's more, she has a 35-year-old sister who is developmentally

delayed and "falls into the cracks" of government assistance programs.

She's a registered Republican, likes Giuliani but supports universal

health care and is giving Democrats a hard look.

"I see too many people at work especially who just don't get any

health care," Haynes said. "I look at what they get for retirement and

Social Security, and I don't see how they live on that and afford

their prescriptions."

The survey of 1,821 adults was conducted from Dec. 14-20, and had an

overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage

points. Included were interviews with 847 Democrats, for whom the

margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.4 points, and 655

Republicans, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.8

points.

The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which

initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods

and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who

had no Internet access were given it for free.

-- AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius and Associated Press Writer

Christine Simmons contributed to this report.

ADVERTISEMENT

Parties and Politics

Democratic National Committee - official site of the Democratic Party,

news, voter information and multimedia.

Republican National Committee - official site of the Republican Party,

news, voter information and multimedia.

PollingReport.com: Election 2008 - collection of national polls

covering the 2008 presidential general election, and Democratic and

Republican nominations.

Yahoo! Video: Election 2008 - video covering all angles of the 2008

U.S. presidential election.

C-SPAN: Road to the White House - collection of video from the 2008

campaign trail.

League of Women Voters - includes local outreach groups and a ballot

list of issues.

PolitiFact.com: Truth-O-Meter - provides analysis of candidates'

speeches, TV ads, and interviews to determine their accuracy.

Wikipedia: 2008 U.S. Presidential Election - includes a timeline of

events leading to the elections and a list of potential candidates.

Get Involved

Declare yourself is an organization that encourages young people

without a voice to step forward with their vote. Register to vote now!

http://www.declareyourself.org