Presidential Campaign: Emotional Pendulum Swings Back to Go

Gainesville, FL, November 01, 2008 --(PR.com)-- After a back-and-forth campaign, voters now feel basically the same emotional connection they did to the presidential candidates as they did a year ago, according to a new study by SenseUS(TM) Emotional Response Polling. The one notable difference is Sarah Palin, who was relatively unknown in September 2007, she now outshines John McCain.

Unlike most polls, which test only rational responses to political issues, SenseUS(TM) Premier measures the emotional connections, using non-verbal visual techniques to measure how voters feel about the issues and the candidates. This technique has been used since September of 2007. SenseUS(TM) has been shown to be highly predictive of election results and has accurately predicted election trends in the 2008 presidential race.

With Independent voters, Barack Obama is the only candidate who has an above-average connection to voters, but falls short of the ideal emotional temperature, which measures such feelings. The ideal temperature is 202 and the average is 100. Obama measured 114, with Palin in second place, barely leading Joe Biden. McCain is not far behind these two. Both the Democratic and Republican parties fall behind the actual candidates as far as relating to Independents.

When examining all voters, Obama still has the highest temperature, 98. The other candidates fall in the same order, but the Democratic Party is higher in the rank than Palin.

Since September, connections with McCain have actually decreased within the Republican Party. By comparison, Obama’s connection with Democrats has improved, indicating that the Party is rallying around its candidate.

The connections with Independents have marked the biggest changes over the past month. At the end of September, both Palin and McCain had sizeable leads over Obama with this group. Since that time, Obama has gained more than 40 points on the Emotional Thermometer, while the Republican candidates have lost significant ground. Additionally, Palin’s temperature has fallen over the last month.

All the polling results can be found at www.SenseUs.net

SenseUS™ uses the AdSAM® (www.adsam.com) technique of emotional response and the Itracks (www.itracks.com) gathering system.

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