Rasmussen Poll Last Week

Last week I took a phone survey poll from Rasmussen Reports.  It was all automated, which is a little disconcerting and not as much fun as having a real person on the line.   I took some notes from the poll.   

It started with one of those really annoying "is the country going in the right direction" questions. 

One question was on what issues I was most concerned about, among those were the economy, national security, fiscal matters, energy, Afghanistan, and immigration.  I was asked my general opinion (mostly favorable/ somewhat favorable / and so on) of Condoleezza Rice, Allan West, Bob McDonnell, Mike Huckabee, and Susanna Martinez.  I took that as a feeler on vice presidential choices (this theory is bolstered by a Rasmussen Report note for that week that Condi might be a good vp candidate, given her poll ratings). 

There were other questions, which I've never been asked in a political poll before, and they seemed strange to me.  Among them (wording may not be exact):

Who do  you trust more, the American people or American political leaders?
Is the federal government a special interest group, looking out for itself?
Is government work on some ways bad for the market?

The demographic questions they asked were age, race, income, likelihood of voting, and religion.