Rasmussen: Ground Zero Mosque Is Biggest Story of The Year

(Rasmussen)- American Adults shared two of the chief concerns of Likely Voters in 2010, the Gulf oil leak’s impact on the economy and plans for a mosque near Ground Zero in New York City.

Rasmussen Reports conducts two separate national tracking surveys, one of both Adults and one of Likely Voters. The latter are generally surveyed on political issues in the news, while adults are asked more often about timely economic and social issues. After all, if it’s in the news, it’s in our polls.

In both tracking polls, we ask respondents how closely they have followed recent news stories about the topic we’re asking about – Very Closely, Somewhat Closely, Not Very Closely, Not At All Closely, Not Sure.

The story most closely followed by all Adults last year in Rasmussen Reports economic surveys was about plans to build a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center.

In mid-August, 58% were following that story Very Closely, with another 27% following somewhat closely. This story attracted little attention until President Obama commented upon it and made it a national issue.

But four of the stories in the Top 10 economic surveys for the year, including #2, 3 and 4, were about the disastrous oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the April 20 explosion of a deepwater drilling platform.

By mid-June, 54% were following stories about the oil leak Very Closely. Over the next month, similar majorities continued to monitor developments in that story as possible UN involvement with the cleanup was considered and as the impact on the overall U.S. economy became clearer.