CNN/ORC Poll

Interviews with 1,246 adult Americans, including an oversample of African-Americans, conducted by telephone by Opinion Research Corporation on November 6 - 9, 2008.  The margin of sampling error for results based on the total sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points.  The sample also includes 310 interviews among African-Americans (plus or minus 5.5 percentage points) and 807 non-Hispanic whites (plus or minus 3.5 percentage points).

Columns in this document labeled "Whites" show results only for respondents who described themselves as white in a question on racial background and did not describe themselves as Hispanic or Latino in a separate question on ethnicity. Columns in this document labeled "Blacks" refer to all respondents who described themselves as black or African-American regardless of their ethnic background.

7. How confident are you that Barack Obama will make the right decisions when it comes to appointing people to his Cabinet -- very confident, somewhat confident, not very confident, or not confident at all?

November 6-9, 2008

Total Whites Blacks

Very confident 43% 37% 83%

Somewhat confident 34% 34% 16%

Not very confident 14% 17% *

Not confident at all 9% 11% *

No opinion * * *

8. Which of the following Cabinet positions that Obama will fill is the one that you think will matter most to the country's future -- Secretary of State, who oversees foreign policy; Secretary of Defense, who oversees military policy; Secretary of the Treasury, who oversees economic policy; or Attorney General, who oversees the country's criminal justice system. (RANDOM ORDER)

November 6-9, 2008

Total Whites Blacks

Secretary of State 25% 26% 25%

Secretary of Defense 24% 24% 16%

Secretary of the Treasury 41% 39% 49%

Not confident at all 8% 8% 8%

Other (vol.) 1% 1% 2%

No opinion 2% 2% 1%