Published: November 16, 2008 02:49 am      

Middle-class tax cuts leading priority

President-elect Barack Obama will bring change to the White House. It has nothing to do with anything promised during campaign speeches or presidential debates. It’s a simple matter of politics.

After eight years, the Grand Ol’ Party is handing over the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to the Democrats. And with a change of parties, you can’t expect anything less than a change of direction when it comes to the challenges and obstacles the nation is facing right now.

Read: Economy. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Credit crunch. Failing manufacturing industries. Banks collapsing. Acid rain. Melting polar ice caps. Godzilla destroying the city.

For some, counting down the days until Jan. 20 is like marking off blocks on the calendar until Christmas — you can’t wait to see what’s in those pretty boxes under the tree. For others, it’s like the end of summer vacation, and Jan. 20 is the first day at a new school — unknown, unfamiliar, unwelcome.

Change. Good? Bad? Just plain old different? Who knows?

But there are a few things that everyone seems to be looking forward to, red or blue.

According to a recent poll conducted by The Associated Press of 1,001 adults nationwide, the four issues ranking the highest in an Obama priority list all have to do with the economy.

No. 1 — Improving the economy, 84 percent.

No. 2 — Creating jobs, 80 percent.

No. 3 — Reducing the federal budget deficit, 61 percent

No. 4 — Stabilizing the nation’s financial institutions, 61 percent.

But the biggest surprise was that while 80 percent of those polled said that working toward the middle-class tax cuts should be a priority for Obama’s administration, they’re willing to wait until other issues are addressed. Only 36 percent said that it should be his top priority after he unpacks boxes in January.

I find it surprising because that’s nearly 10 points less than the poll we conducted on our online site last week. At www.timeswv.com, voters were asked to identify what they felt should be the new president’s top priority after his inauguration.

In our poll, which I tend to trust a bit more than a nationwide poll, 44.93 percent of our readers voting think Obama should start his term by pursuing the middle-class tax cuts he promised while he was campaigning. Compare that to the 36 percent from the AP poll.

The next highest vote for our poll was “preparing a second stimulus to boost the ailing economy” with 25.36 percent. But I can’t really figure out how that aligns with the AP poll. It could be “improving the economy,” which pulled in 80 percent of the nationwide vote, or “dealing with the problems of poor people,” which ranked sixth in the AP poll of priorities.

Our third-ranked priority was “stepping up efforts to withdraw from Iraq,” which took 15.94 percent of the vote. For nationwide voters, that ranked as the first non-economic priority.

And for only 13.77 percent of our voters, “improving international relationships” is a top priority. Funny, it didn’t even make it to AP’s Top 10. Oh, who cares what the French think of us anyway?

Speaking of the economy, we’re curious about how unsteady times have modified your Christmas lists this year.

Log on. Vote. E-mail me.

Misty Poe

mpoe@timeswv.com