Mini Poll results for May 2009: How Long recession will last.

Mini Poll survey summary for April: How long the recession will last

Here is a summary of the Mini Poll data for May as compared to December, January, February, March and April.

First the question.
How long do you believe this recession will last?

Data for December, then January, February, March, April and May:
Mid 2009 4%, 17%, 10%, 12%, 4%, 7%
End 2009 35%, 25%, 24%, 21%, 25%, 11%
Mid 2010 15%, 13%, 12%, 3%, 33%, 19%
End 2010 15%, 10%, 4%, 18%, 15%, 15%
Mid 2011 12%, 17%, 10%, 3%, 4%, 4%
End 2011 8%, 0%, 10%, 3%, 4%, 4%
Mid 2012 0%, 0%, 2%, 3%, 2%, 7%
End 2012 0%, 0%, 2%, 0%, 0%, 19%
Much Longer than the choices you have provided 0%, 0%, 10%, 12%, 0%, 11%
We are going to be in a Depression 12%, 19%, 18%, 24%, 13%, 4%

If I summarize by Year:
2009 39%, 42%, 34%, 33%, 29%, 18%
2010 30%, 23%, 16%, 21%, 48%, 34%
2011 20%, 17%, 20%, 6%, 8%, 8%
2012 0%, 0%, 4%, 3%, 2%, 26%
Depression 12%, 19%, 18%, 24%, 13%, 4%

Sample size for December was 26, for January 48 votes, for February 51 votes, for March 39 votes, for April 48 votes and for May 27 votes.

The major change seems to be the change in the year 2012 gaining to 26% from single digits for all previous months and the percentage seeing the likelihood of a Depression has dropped to the lowest reading of 4%. This validates the Consumer Confidence numbers for May were better going up to 68.1 from 65 in April.

Super Tuesday results: What do they mean?

There are several conclusions we can make about the results of Super Tuesday. First, the dream is alive and well. Sen. Barack Obama, with a lead in the delegate count before the election, had a very good Super Tuesday. While Hillary Clinton won more delegates on Super Tuesday, Barack's momentum continues. It was a disappointing result for me here in California where Barack did not beat Hillary. There is a reasonable explanation for this, as many of us voted at least one or two weeks ago with absentee ballots. If you were for Hillary then or unsure, you would not have gotten the surge of popularity in Barack's message and would have voted before the last debate. I am waiting for the media to see this obvious influence in the outcome. Barack still may have enough momentum to capture more delegates and pull ahead of Hillary in a more substantive way over the next 30 days. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Texas are among the States yet to have their primaries.

Another conclusion is that the media has been quite rightfully talking about the excitement of the elections. That is true, but it is true mostly because of Barack Obama. He has given hope to a country needing hope so desperately in the wake of 7 plus terrible years of the Bush Administration's arrogance, incompetence and malfeasance. America is so ready for change.

On the Republican side, one conclusion that may not be so clear is that Republicans do not have a candidate they can truly rally behind. McCain did win many States but most were in the Northeast and the West, including his home State of Arizona and California. It is a battle within the Republican Party for the very soul of the Party. It is a battle between the Christian Religious Right versus Social Conservatives who want to break from Bush and the neocons. McCain is a Social Conservative and Huckabee is from the Christian Religious Right being a Baptist Minister but Huckabee also is using his preacher status to be a 'Compassionate Conservative, which President Bush had claimed he was but never showed that side of himself in office as President. Romney is a Social Conservative but is playing to his religious core in an appeal to the "Christian" Religious Right. They don’t see Mormons as true Christians. Does this sound confusing? That's why the Republicans are so split in this election cycle.