Voter perceptions regarding character issues are often cited as a key factor in the outcome of presidential elections. According to a new FOX News poll, results are mixed as to whether Barack Obama or John McCain is better suited to pass this year’s "character" test with voters.
With Election Day less than a month away, major questions still linger on a range of measures dealing with the personal make-up of the presidential contenders. On the one hand, voters see Obama (by a 41 percent to 26 percent margin) as being more likely than McCain to hide the truth about his background and past associations.
On the other hand, by a nearly two-to-one margin (51 percent to 27 percent) more voters think McCain is waging a negative rather than a positive campaign against his rival.
Video of Obama speaking about Republican's using fear tactics.
Key quote: "McCain was booed by his own supporters Friday when, in an abrupt switch from raising questions about Barack Obama's character, he described the Democrat as a 'decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States.' "
Key quote: "A McCain campaign video released today hits the "guilt by association" theme that has become a prominent part of GOP attacks on Barack Obama during the final weeks of an increasingly vituperative presidential election campaign."
Key quote: "U.S. Democrat Barack Obama called climate change "one of the biggest challenges of our time" but with just weeks to go until the election and the economy and current financial crisis dominating the debate, the environment and climate change has been relegated to a secondary issue."
Key quote: "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Friday said Sen. Barack Obama put "ambition above country" after a newspaper reported that Obama may have tried to influence Iraqi politicians negotiating with the United States."
Key quote: "He says when Obama talks "the Messiah is absolutely speaking."
Key quote: "Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's last name is spelled "Osama" on hundreds of absentee ballots mailed out this week to voters in Rensselaer County."
Key quote: "It baldly accuses the Illinois senator of "lying" about his connection with Ayers, a former Weather Underground leader turned education professor. True or false?"
Key quote: "At a 6,000-strong rally in Pennsylvania this week, as the two candidates on the Republican ticket waited backstage, a senior party member asked the crowd how they would feel about having a president with the middle name Hussein."
Key quotes: "Ninety-four percent of adult Americans have heard at least one of the ridiculous and false rumors chasing John McCain and Barack Obama on the campaign trail, according to a Scripps poll."
Key quote: "For the first few months of his career as a lawmaker, Obama navigated the unfamiliar corridors of the state Capitol like a misfit lost in a new school, sometimes complaining to colleagues that he was "getting it from all sides." "
Key quote: "In the largely black precincts of those metropolises, radio broadcasts blast constant reminders to vote for Obama, field organizers swarm, and megastars including Jay-Z, Russell Simmons, and LeBron James have led massive rallies, working to reach not just the substantial portion of the black community who regularly come out to vote, but the younger people and others who have never before cast a ballot."
Key quote: "Though their politics have much in common, the man who aspires to be the next Democratic president could hardly seem more different from the last one in terms of temperament. "
Key quote: "As the presidential campaign marches on, so does the preoccupation among some voters with the sartorial tastes of Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain. (There’s even a blog devoted entirely to Mrs. Obama’s outfits: Mrs-o.org)"
Key quote: “For ever they’ve said, ‘You’ll never see a black president’, but it’s happening right now, today, and if he makes it — oh my God, I hope my heart doesn’t stop.”
Key quote: "About 63 million people watched Tuesday night's presidential debate on the major broadcast and cable networks, nearly 11 million more than the audience for the first debate Sept. 26 between John McCain and Barack Obama,
Key quote: "Barack Obama stumped in Indianapolis yesterday, while running mate Joe Biden, in Tampa, criticized the latest round of attacks from the McCain campaign."
Key quote: "Though Tom Brokaw didn't ask any questions about cultural policy during last night's second presidential debate, as my colleague Christopher Knight hoped he might, Barack Obama did touch on the subject of green architecture."
Video clip of Michelle Obama on Larry King Live.
Key quote: "Michelle Obama rejected the reported assertion by McCain's wife, Cindy McCain, that Barack Obama was running the dirtiest campaign in American history."
Key quote: "But there are still questions over when Obama truly learned about Ayers' radical background."
Key quote: "The direct purchase of such a large block of national airtime right before an election used to be more commonplace before campaigns began to focus their end game strategies exclusively on battleground states."