ELECTION 2012 - Voters Highly Engaged

"U.S. Voters Are Highly Engaged: Pew Poll Suggests Big Turnout for 2012 Election" PBS Newshour 9/19/2012

Excerpt

GWEN IFILL (Newshour): The presidential candidates are in hand-to-hand combat. The polls are tight. But what's driving the voters?

President Obama appears to be leading for now, but a number of new polls out this week show it's about more than just the horse race. It's about leadership.

A Pew Research Center survey released today finds President Obama outpaces Mitt Romney 51 percent to 37 percent when voters are asked which candidate has good judgment in a crisis.

And even though voters still think the nation is on the wrong track, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows 42 percent of voters are optimistic the economy will improve next year. That's up six points in a single month and 15 points since July.

But the electorate remains divided.

According to Pew, 69 percent of Romney voters say they are angry at Mr. Obama; 49 percent of Obama voters say the same thing about Mr. Romney.

So what does this tell us about the mood of the electorate?

For that, we turn to Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center, and Mark Blumenthal, senior polling editor of Huffington Post.