Mark Twain’s famous line about the reports of his death being “greatly exaggerated” is perfectly appropriate for conservatism in America right now. Politically a strong majority of the American voters fall within the center-right coalition. On the issues of taxes, spending and the general morality of our culture significant majorities of the voters hold to conservative principles.

That said, Twain’s line may not apply so easily to the Republican Party just now. Simply put, the voters’ rejection of the Republican Party is a direct result of the Party’s failure to live up to their promise for common sense conservative governance. As the survey clearly demonstrates the Republican Party has lost all or nearly all of its advantages on issues of fiscal responsibility and scope of government. While this is not the only problem now facing the Republican Party, it is certainly the biggest.

This memo is a quick analysis of the top-line results. Look for an indepth analysis of the entire survey, including test on a number of national issues, in the coming days.

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NATIONAL ISSUE SET
As we have all known for months now the economy has dominated this election. What is surprising is that a majority of voters in these swing states are optimistic about the depth of our economic challenges.

NATIONAL AGENDA
A significant majority of the voters in these swing states still believe our culture is headed in the wrong direction and want Congress to do something about it. However, as the above data demonstrates there is no question that these concerns have been greatly overshadowed by the economic crisis facing our country.

PRESIDENTIAL DECISION
On the eve of the election we found Senator Barack Obama with a slight to clear advantage over John McCain in all four swing states included in this study. We also found that in each state the remaining undecided voters were likely to break for Senator McCain by a significant margin. That said, the survey clearly suggested that Senator Obama had built a enough of a lead to overcome the last minute surge toward Senator McCain.

PARTY ISSUE RATINGS
The following table demonstrate the depth of the Republican Party’s problems. From our prospective these finding are nothing short of shocking and they demonstrate beyond any doubt that the voters believe the Republican Party has lost its way and walked away from its conservative principles. The voters in these four swing states give the Democrats an advantage on spending, taxes, energy and our current economic crisis.

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