| 100% | IRAQ | 4 | With 33-Down, topic in the 2008 presidential campaign |
| 48% | IRAQWAR | 7 | 2008 presidential campaign topic |
| 47% | AYERS | 5 | Bill ___, controversial figure in the 2008 presidential election |
| 45% | SMACK | 5 | With 33-Down, precisely, as in the middle of 17-, 23-, 51- and 62-Across |
| 43% | JOETHEPLUMBER | 13 | Personality who came to symbolize Middle America during the 2008 presidential campaign: 3 wds. |
| 43% | IOWA | 4 | Early state in the presidential campaign |
| 42% | NAFTA | 5 | Hot topic of the 1992 presidential campaign |
| 41% | KEANU | 5 | With 7-Down, actor who played Klaatu in 2008’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still” |
| 41% | HONEST | 6 | With 33-Down, Presidential epithet |
| 41% | BRYCE | 5 | With 33-Across, Alabama quarterback who won the Heisman Trophy in 2021 |
| 41% | KUCINICH | 8 | Also-ran in the 2004 and 2008 Democratic Presidential primaries |
| 41% | LSD | 3 | Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" topic, some said |
| 40% | BARACK | 6 | With 29 Down, president born in the '60s |
| 40% | HUCKABEE | 8 | Mike —, Governor of Arkansas from 1996-2007; candidate in the 2008 Republican Party presidential primaries |
| 40% | HEREISTAND | 10 | 2008 34-Down studio album with the hit singles "Love in This Club" and "Trading Places" (3 wds.) |
| 40% | PATSY | 5 | With 33-Across, singer of "Crazy," the 1992 campaign song for H. Ross Perot |
| 40% | WILLY | 5 | With 33-Across, candymaker played by Johnny Depp in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" |
| 40% | LEANN | 5 | With 33-Across, "Blue" singer who won the Best New Artist Grammy in 1997 |
| 39% | ISMELLTHEBLOOD | 14 | With 50-Down, cry made in [the circled letters] after the starts of 54-, 33-, 30- and 14-Down |
| 39% | OBAMA | 5 | 2008 candidate with the slogan "Change we can believe in" |
| 39% | OLD | 3 | With 33-Down, the U.S. flag, affectionately |
| 39% | ANN | 3 | With 33-Down, leader of the Shakers |
| 39% | BILLY | 5 | With 33-Across, Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart's defense lawyer in the musical "Chicago" |
| 39% | NADER | 5 | Ralph who finished third in the presidential races of 2000, 2004 and 2008 |
| 39% | LIONEL | 6 | With 33-Across, winner of the Golden Ball in the 2014 World Cup |
| 39% | ORSON | 5 | With 17-Down, director whose "The Other Side of the Wind" was released in 2018, 33 years after his death |
| 38% | MICHAEL | 7 | With 33-Across, pop singer whose posthumous album "This Is It" topped the charts in 2009 |
| 38% | NICKI | 5 | With 33-Across, "Anaconda" rapper who won the BET Award for Best New Artist in 2010 |
| 38% | CHUCK | 5 | With 33-Across, "Big Self-Portrait" painter who received the National Medal of Arts in 2000 |
| 38% | PLUMB | 5 | With 111 Down, crazy as a loon, in the Crazy A Saloon |