The 2008 Campaign, Now Even More Interesting

The historic nature of the 2008 presidential campaign has stimulated a great deal of interest among voters all year, but now they are now even more focused on the process of electing a new president. In the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll, 63 percent of voters said they were paying a lot of attention to the campaign, up from 51 percent before the parties held their conventions. In September 2004, 52 percent said they were concentrating a lot on Senator John Kerry's campaign to defeat President Bush. The findings are borne out by television ratings: Nielsen estimates nearly two-thirds of the country's households -- more than 120 million people -- watched at least one of the conventions. The 15 percent of homes that tuned in only to the Republican National Convention was comparable to the 16 percent that watched just the Democratic National Convention, while 34 percent tuned in to both. The poll also found that ideology is not driving interest.