Five (Perhaps Under-Reported) Things to Watch Tonight
After a long stretch of inactivity in terms of actually voting, the Republican nomination contest fires back up tonight with Michigan and Arizona going to the polls. Most of us won’t be able to turn anywhere tonight without seeing coverage of what happens, but here are five things we’ll be watching here at WPA that [...]
Chris Wilson on the Willis Report
Dodd-Frank and the “unbanked”: This is a classic case of unintended—but predictable—effects of a bad policy. It doesn’t take a genius to know that if you make it unprofitable for banks to do business with some customers by banning the things (like fees) that allow them to make money serving those customers, then those customers [...]
WPA’s Friday Slide Deck
As part of our continuing effort to keep our clients and friends up-to-date on the political environment as we head toward Election Day, 2012, every Friday WPA complies the key numbers from the week and provides analysis of key trends. In addition to the key political numbers, this week’s analysis includes: The price of gas [...]
Looking Ahead to Super Tuesday
(from the PRIsm political report) It’s quite possible that Super Tuesday, designed to give one presidential candidate a boost toward the eventual party nomination, may not be particularly definitive in 2012. Initial polling has been published, or trends are clear, in nine of the thirteen states hosting caucuses or primaries on or before Super Tuesday, [...]
A Look at the Latest Economic Data
While the Obama Administration has been touting the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers that saw unemployment decrease to 8.3%, new numbers from Gallup suggest that the Obama Administration should be cautious about placing all their eggs in the BLS basket. According to Gallup, unemployment rate, without seasonal adjustment, is 9.0% in mid-February, up from 8.6% [...]
WPA’s Friday Slide Deck
WPA's Key Weekend Charts 120217 As part of our continuing effort to keep our clients and friends up-to-date on the political environment as we head toward Election Day, 2012, every Friday WPA complies the key numbers from the week and provides analysis of key trends. In addition to the the key political numbers, this week’s [...]
New Numbers in Massachusetts and Hawaii
(from the PRIsm Political Report) Hawaii The Hawaii US Senate campaign is turning crazy. Now, another new poll reports starkly different results to some others already in the public domain. Ward Research, a Hawaii-based survey research firm, conducted a new poll with an abnormally long sampling period for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser newspaper (1/26-2/5; [...]
Budget Day: Obama’s Failure on Debt
With President Obama releasing his budget today, it is worthwhile to take a look at where Americans stand on budget priorities. According to a new Hill Poll, voters are closely split with 45% wanting the budget’s primary focus to be on job creation and 40% wanting cuts in spending to be the most important priority. [...]
3 Ways That Information Presentation Makes You More Persuasive
1)Use Normal Words When writing, don’t make your audience work to understand you. Use the simplest vocabulary necessary to communicate the point without dumbing it down. Words have specific meanings, and big words can give nuance to phrases. However, all too frequently people find the largest word that applies to the situation and use it [...]
Weekly Reading: 2/10/2012
As we wind down another week and the East Coast braces for some more snow, I’m glad I’m not trying to fly in or out as many of my friends are. I’ll be hunkered down in my cave with charcuterie, wine, and candles. If I had a date, I wouldn’t mind the snow at all. [...]
It’s not about what you want to say. It’s all about what consumer need to hear.
The other night I was reminded of trends in hospital advertising. While I sat at the dinner table with the television on in the background I heard a hospital ad that highlighted the experiences of patients advocating their hospital visit. It seems that this is the new trend for hospitals today, to have patients tell [...]
WPA Poll: Manzullo/Kinzinger Tied in IL-16
(from RollCall) By Shira Toeplitz Posted at 1:24 p.m. today Rep. Adam Kinzinger (above) faces fellow GOP Rep. Don Manzullo in a primary next month. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo) Illinois Republicans Don Manzullo and Adam Kinzinger are locked in a competitive primary, according to a new survey from a super PAC supporting Kinzinger. [...]
The Truth About the Generic Ballot
An interesting comment caught my eye in the Washington Post’s The Fix blog yesterday. The article repeated a Democratic talking point that Democrats lead on the generic ballot by “several points” and this is evidence that they might take back the house. For those of us who have worked in polling for more than a [...]
State by State, Americans Not Confident in the Economy
Gallup released state by state economic confidence numbers today, and surprise the District of Columbia has the highest economic confidence. While the government bureaucrats are the most confident, in the rest of the country confidence in the economy is down dramatically. The bottom line is that this is still an economy election and voters are [...]
Weekend Reading: 2/4/2012
Welcome to another in what has been a semi-regular series of clips and quips to get you through your weekend. This morning I continued my ongoing habit of fleeing a state right before its Presidential primary or caucus. I now have Florida and Nevada under my belt for this year. Guess I need to figure [...]
The Importance of Customer Satisfaction
Sometimes companies are misguided by the notion that customers depend on them. The truth of the matter is that we very much so depend on them. Many researchers and academia have highlighted the importance of customers in today’s market. The level of satisfaction a customer has with a company has profound effects. Studies have found [...]
The 3 Greatest Missed Opportunities of the Super Bowl
This weekend Americans everywhere will overwhelmingly gather and participate in the cultural phenomenon known as the Super Bowl. Football fans will hope for a good game, non-football fans will hope for good commercials, and I’ll be hoping the Giants and Patriots fans in the room with me don’t get violent. But the biggest missed opportunities [...]
R’s and D’s Agree – Cut Taxes to Create Jobs
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Among five specific economic proposals, both Republicans and Democrats are in favor of giving tax breaks to corporations that bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas and pressuring China for fairer trade. They are sharply divided about increasing federal income taxes on upper-income Americans, increasing federal spending to help the long-term unemployed find [...]
