Americans' Confidence Level Increases Regarding Nation's Issues After Obama's Inauguration Speech

/PRNewswire/ -- A study conducted among 1,819 self-reported Democrats, Republicans and Independents revealed that the majority of Americans are more confident that the key issues facing the nation will improve during the next four years after viewing President Barack Obama's inauguration speech.

The study was conducted by HCD Research on January 20 to obtain Americans' perceptions of President Barack Obama and what effect his presidency will have on the nation's critical issues, including the economy, health care, education, the war in Iraq and energy supply and creation.

Participants were asked to respond the questions before and after viewing the inauguration speech to determine if their perceptions changed after viewing the speech. Participants were also asked to rate Barack Obama based on 8 leadership attributes. To view detailed results, visit: www.mediacurves.com.

Among the findings:

After the speech, 51% of Republicans were confident that the economy would improve over the next four years compared to 38% before watching the speech. Democrats were more confident with regard to the issue of Iraq. There was an increase of 17% of Democrats who believed that the issue of the war in Iraq would improve in the next presidency after watching the inauguration speech.

Republicans' perception of President Obama's leadership also improved after the inauguration speech. Participants were asked to rate President Obama on an agreement scale based on 8 leadership attributes before and after watching the inauguration speech. Republicans increased their level of agreement for every leadership attribute after viewing the speech. The highest increases were seen in the following attributes: "Obama is firm and consistent in his views" (increase of 15%), "Obama is representing my values (increase of 14%) and "Obama is honest" (increase of 13%).

Participants' emotions were also measured while viewing the speech. The emotion that was felt the most by viewers during the inauguration speech was hopefulness. Hopefulness was the top emotion felt by Democrats (68%), Republicans (36%), as well as Independents (57%). Democrats and Independents also reported that they felt confident and attentive, while Republicans reported that they felt some skepticism.