But Economy Top Issue: Massive Pro-Life Effort Aids Candidates.

True to American tradition, voters on November 4 reacted to the perception of an economic crisis by severely punishing the party in the White House. Unfortunately for the pro-life movement, this meant not only that the pro-abortion team of Barack Obama and Joe Biden beat the pro-life team of John McCain and Sarah Palin, but also that pro-life Republicans suffered losses to pro-abortion Democrats in both the U.S. House and Senate despite valiant efforts by National Right to Life PAC and right to life volunteers nationwide.

Post-election polling showed that, just as in past elections since Roe v. Wade, a significant margin was given to pro-life candidates by the abortion issue, but it was not enough to overcome the Democratic tsunami that followed the stock market collapse and freezing of credit markets that occurred in October.

A nationwide poll of 800 actual voters conducted by The Polling Company November 45 found that 5% of voters said that abortion was the most important issue affecting their vote and 90% of these (4.5% of the entire population) voted for McCain while only 10% (one-half percent of the entire population) voted for Obama. This means "single-issue" abortion voters provided McCain a net gain of 4%.

Likewise among those voters for whom abortion was the most important issue, 78% (4% of the entire population) said they voted for Republican congressional candidates while only 15% (1% of the entire population) said they voted for Democratic congressional candidates. This is significant since in every viable congressional contest involving a pro-life versus a pro-abortion candidate, the pro-life candidate was the Republican and the pro-abortion candidate was the Democrat.

When just asked a "softer" question of whether abortion affected their vote 34% said yes with 25% saying they voted for candidates who oppose abortion and just 9% saying they voted for candidates who favor abortion. Of those who said abortion affected their vote, 63% said they voted for McCain and 36% said they voted for Obama, while 58% said they voted the Republican for Congress as opposed to 36% who said they voted for the Democrat.

However, the solid 4% advantage given McCain among those for whom abortion was the most important issue could not match the heavy advantage given to Obama among voters for whom the economy was the single most important issue.

Fully 34% said that "the economy and jobs" was the most important issue affecting their vote. Of these, 69% (24% of the entire electorate) voted for Obama. In contrast, only 30% of these (10% of the entire electorate) voted for McCain. Thus "single-issue" economy voters provided a net advantage of 14% for Barack Obama and decided the election.