In the News - Current Events

Sep 29, 2026

The document reports a pre-election week of current events and polling coverage ahead of the U.S. presidential vote. It summarizes student poll results favoring George Bush, describes a major earthquake in Cairo and early information about nuclear-related reports involving Iran, and then focuses on nationwide polling trends. It contrasts Clinton, Bush, and Perot in major surveys, explains why polls can vary, and examines economic concerns, debate impact, and the reliability and limitations of public opinion polling.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

In the News

Whom will they choose?

CURRENT EVENTS

ONE WEEK TO GO...

What the Polls Say

Bush's Decline

What happened?

How Important?

How reliable are the polls?

The Debates

Too Many Polls?

# In the News This Week... ■ Bush Wins StudentPoll.At least one poll hasgiven George Bush someting to smile about.He hasswept the Weekly ReaderNational Presidential Poll—one that has never beenwrong in 36 years.The resuls give Bush over half thevote (see graph).Students ingrades Kindergarten throughfourth gave most of theirvotes to Bush.Students ingrades 5 through highschool chose Clinton.Votingin the poll were 606,696students in 23,000 class-rooms across the U.S. Weekly ReaderPresidential Poll°39%Bush ■Earthquake SrikesEgypt.Cairo,capital ofEgypt,has suffered its worstearthquake in modern times.The quake,which measured 5.9 on the Richter Scale,shook the 1300year-old cityviolently on October 13.More than 500 people died.Aid for the surviving vichimsis being rushed in. ■ Nuclear Bombs to Iran?According to reports,lran has bought four nuclearwarheads from the formerSoviet republic of Koza-khslan.This is one of four for-mer republics with nuclearweapons sill on their soil.The U.S.is negoliating withthe republics to prevent thespread of nuclear weapons. Son (rnt sonenoghfor some!)the speeches willend;the TV ads will disap-pear;the polls will be a thingof the past.Early next week,on Tuesday,November 3,Americans will finally vote—and choose the man who willlead the nation for the nextfour years. ## Whom will they choose?Will it be Democrat Bill # CURRENT EVENTS The three presidenial candidates greet each other ofter the first debate. # ONE WEEKTO G0... Next Tuesday Americans Will Choose theNation's Next President Clinton,with his message ofchange?Will it be Republi-can George Bushwith hispromise of strong leadership?Or will it be H.Ross Perot,the independent candidatewho pledges to“make Gov-ernment work"? ## What the Polls Say If you believe public opin-ion polls,the next President will be Bill Clinton.At thetime CE went to press (Oct. 20),Clinton was firmly aheadin nearly all major polls oflikely voters: ●A USA Today/CNN pollshowed Clinton leading Bushby 48 percent to Bush's 33percent,with Perot capturing12 percent.(Seven percentwere undecided.) (continued on page 2) ONE WEEK TO G0... CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 ●A New York Times/CBSpoll showed Clinton with 47percent of the vote,Bush with34 percent,and Perot with 10percent.(Nine percent wereundecided.) Both of these polls arehighly-respected voter opinionpolls.But in the poll that re-ally tells the story,our ownpoll of 42,390 Current Eventssubscribers,Clinton toppedBush by an even larger mar-gin—by 51 percent to Bush's38 percent,with 11 percentfor Perot. It has been a bad twoweeks for President Bush inthe polls.But there was somesign of hope.Bush won theWeekly Reader poll of morethan 600,000 students inKindergarten through highschool.(See "In The News.")In the Weekly Reader poll,Bush captured 56 percent of.votes to Clinton's 39 percent,with “other”getting 5 per-cent.(Perot hadn't reenteredthe race when the poll wastaken.) Graphs compare results of the CE poll and the USA Today poll. said they worry about losingtheir jobs in the next 12months.And more than 65percent said the nation was“on the wrong path.” likely voters,they can accu-rately measure how Ameri-cans as a whole would vote ifthe election were held at thetime the poll was taken. Still,no matter how care-ully pollsters choose theirsample,polls are not com-pletely accurate.This is whypolls taken at the same timecan vary greatly. President Bush says thatmuch of the blame for eco-nomic hard times mustfall onCongress for failing to passthe President's program foreconomic recovery.But manyAmericans tend to blamePresident Bush himself. ## Bush's Decline A little over one year ago,polls showed President Bushbeating any Democratic oppo-nent,including Bill Clinton. Now most polls show thePresident going down to de-feat on Election Day. “Bush may or may not beresponsible for the nation'seconomic woes,"says one expert."But,as President,hegets blamed for them.” ## What hap

FAQs

Who is leading in the major public opinion polls described in the document?

The document states that Bill Clinton is firmly ahead of George Bush in nearly all major polls of likely voters, with Ross Perot trailing behind. One cited poll also notes a share for undecided voters.

Why do experts say likely voters shifted away from President Bush?

Experts attribute the shift primarily to the “bad state of the U.S. economy.” The text also notes that many Americans blame Bush himself for economic hard times.

How reliable are polls, according to the document?

The document says most polls are very reliable because pollsters carefully select a sample of likely voters. At the same time, it emphasizes that polls have a built-in margin of error and can still fail to reflect how people will actually vote.

Sep 29, 2026

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