BP Oil Spill News Story of 2010; Attacks of September 11, 2001 News Story of Decade

UTICA, NY - Former Vice-Presidential candidate and Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin is the Person of the Year for 2010 according to a recent Zogby International survey.  The poll, also names former President George W. Bush as the Person of the Decade (2000-2010).

Palin garners a 21% response with President Barack Obama claiming 16% for person of the year, and Glenn Beck tied with Julian Assange with 13%.  None of the other seven people listed (General David Petraeus, Mark Zukerberg, Hillary Clinton, Conan O'Brien, Steve Jobs, LeBron James, Robert Gates) in the survey pull in more than 6%. 

Democrats mostly choose President Obama (33%) and Assange (19%), while Republicans go for Palin (39%) and Beck (25%), and independents split their votes between Palin (17%), Beck (16%) and Assange (15%).  President Obama only pulled 8% of the Independent vote. 

Former President George W. Bush pulls in 44% of the respondents for Person of the Decade.  President Obama comes in second with 20% and Osama Bin Laden garners 11%.  None of the remaining six people listed (Hillary Clinton, Tony Blair, Saddam Hussein, Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-Il) in the survey receive more than 5%. 

The same survey finds the BP Oil Spill off the coast of Louisiana as the news story of the year, with 40% of the vote, while the 2010 midterm elections come in second with 34%.  The majority of Republicans (53%) believe the midterm elections is the most significant story of 2010, while Democrats (60%) choose the BP Oil Spill, and independents are split over the BP Oil Spill (39%) and the midterm elections (28%). 

Additionally, the attack of September 11, 2001 is the news story of the decade according to 73% of respondents, and with the majorities across all party lines (Republicans 91%, Independents 74%, and Democrats 57%).  Democrats are the only group to give any other stories double digit figures, with both the Bush/Gore elections of 2000 (11%) and the Obama/McCain election of 2008 (10%). 

Other results from the interactive poll include:

·         Most ridiculous story of 2010: Stephen Colbert testifying on Capitol Hill on immigration

·         Most significant sports story of 2010: New Orleans Saints winning the Super Bowl

·         Most significant entertainment story of 2010: Glenn Beck Rally (23%), Tiger Woods Divorce (14%), Jon Steward/Stephen Colbert Rally (13%)

·         Most significant political story of 2010: Emergence of the Tea Party (30%), Pres. Obama signing Healthcare Reform (25%), Republicans win the House of Representatives (19%)

·         Most significant international news story of 2010: Haiti Earthquake

·         Most significant issue of the decade (2000-2010): Rise in Terrorism

·         Athlete of the decade (2000-2010): Tiger Woods

·         Most influential media, entertainment or celebrity of the decade (2000-2010): Glenn Beck

·         Most impactful inventions of the decade (2000-2010): High-speed internet (24%) and Facebook (22%) 

Zogby International conducted an online survey of 1,950 adults from Dec 8 - Dec. 10, 2010. A sampling of Zogby International's online panel, which is representative of the adult population of the U.S., was invited to participate.   Slight weights were added to region, party, age, race, religion, gender, education to more accurately reflect the population. The margin of error is +/- 2.3 percentage points. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.  The MOE calculation is for sampling error only. In almost all cases, respondents were provided a list of choices.