I tire of these ridiculous poll results given on the eve of the State of the Union.
What exactly do Americans want? I know what they want. They want the world to go back to the way it was before 9/11. They want to live without fear that an attack will undermine the economy and take away everything (possession) they hold dear.
And even with Democrats promising every thing, Americans know the Democrats can’t deliver. No one can. So, where do citizens turn if the Republicans and Democrats seem helpless in these prosperous yet troubled times?
Here. Not literally. People actually turn to controlled…..you know what I mean.
Right track/Wrong track polls have been around quite a while, Melissa.
Maybe Americans are upset that a large chunk of our time and resources have been spent on a four year folly.
…or listening to people stroke their own sense of moral superiority by calling it a four year folly, even though, with the time and commitment we pledged, it could potentially change the entire dynamic in the middle east.
Doesn’t make them worthwhile.
That’s cool. My husband works in pharma, so long live the antidepressant!!
(*)>
alphie,
Obviously they’ve been around a long time, which is why I tire of them. They are worthless–except to the extent they reflect the MSM’s ability to shape public opinion.
The headline should be: MSM Succeeds At Persuading Citizens That America is in the Shitter and It’s All Bush’s Fault
And maybe they are upset that a pinheaded dilletante is third in line to the Oval Office, or that Bush hasn’t done shit to privatize and reform Social Security, or deregulate the medical industy to try to foster some competition to lower health care costs, or blow up the IRS and push through the Fair Tax, or a thousand other things that you would be opposed to. The question and results are completely meaningless, yet demogogues like you never hesitate to rush about smacking people over the head with them.
How much of your time has been spent in Iraq, alphie?
Iraq dominates the national agenda, with 48 percent of Americans calling the war the single most important issue they want Bush and the Congress to deal with this year. No other issue rises out of single digits.
Reasonable Americans can conclude that invading Iraq was a bad idea and we should end our involvement there, B Moe.
Calling people who feel that way demogogues and MSM tools isn’t going to change that.
So everyone who thinks Iraq is important also thinks it’s a mistake, alphie?
How did you make that leap of faith?
One thing taught in Journalism 101 is the “inverted pyramid” style of copywriting—which tells reporters to put the important info in the first paragraph and work down to the least important info at the end. It’s a legacy of newspapers. It makes stories easier to edit for space, or to “jump” to a later page.
Thus, one can determine what the reporter thinks is more important and less important.
So what can we learn from reading this story?
The reporter here did not think it was important that:
And while the story notes that economy was one of the top three issues to Americans, there’s no mention that the president’s approval rating on the economy rose to 43 percent in January from 38 percent in December.
alphie wrote:
That is the WaPo-ABC News poll. The AP-Ipsos poll report:
Not the exact same question, but a 24 percent gap demonstrates the pitfalls of running around waving some particular poll as the Gospel. We should thank alphie for demonstrating that.
alphie continues to substitute assertion for argument and then admonishes us for not seeing the reality he constructs around whatever straws he can grasp.
The thing is, Karl, we live in a democracy.
It may take a while, but sooner or later get politicians that share the views of a majority of Americans.
Two years from tomorrow, someone other than Bush will be giving the State of the Union speech. And if we have any troops left in Iraq at that time, odds are the new President will be announcing they’re coming home.
In the meantime, it would help your cause if Bush could manage to give a speech about Iraq that didn’t make people feel there was a getaway car idling just outside the door…
The thing is, alphie, we live in a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy.
What was the latest poll numbers for percentage of Americans who could find Iraq on a fucking map?
Thing is, in the long-term, presidents are judged by history. Warren G. Harding was a lot more popular when he died in office than Harry S. Truman was when he left, yet Harding now rates as a failure and Truman as near great.
Both Truman and Carter had numbers lower than Bush, yet history judges them quite differently. Perhaps because Truman dealt with a rising threat, while Carter did nothing to stop the threat we now face.
That ignorance is why polls, conducted by the fourth estate, are dangerous. We don’t elect someone to be a yes man in the oval office, governing by polls, where ever the fickle whims of the “majority” take us. Especially when the MSM is doing the polling. Makes them way too powerful.
Maybe political polling should be illegal 180 days out from an election.
Just a thought, Senator McCain.
You know your side is in the crapper when you bitch about polling.
….
Damn stupid American sheeple. So easily misled.
No moral superiority strokin’ going on here, no way.
Cheer up, mate! It’s Blue Monday.
Of course, depression affects different people differently.
Oh, and fuck off, please, david. There. Feel any better?
You know your side is losing when trolls start coming in and creating aphorisms out of whole cloth to “prove” that you’re losing…
Well, bigger minds do have bigger morals, Moops.
Bush-Republican……….62,040,610 50.73%
Kerry-Democrat………..59,028,439 48.27%
Nader-Independent………..463,655 0.38%
Badnarik-Libertarian……..397,265 0.32%
Peroutka-Constitution…….144,499 0.12%
Cobb Pat-Green…………..119,859 0.10%
Write-ins
Peltier-Peace & Freedom……27,607 0.02%
Brown-Socialist…………..10,822 0.01%
Calero-Socialist Workers…..10,795 0.01%
None of these Candidates……3,688 0.00%
Harens-Christian Freedom……2,387 0.00%
Amondson-Concerns of People…1,944 0.00%
Van Auken-Socialist Equality..1,857 0.00%
Parker-Workers World……….1,646 0.00%
Jay-Personal Choice………….946 0.00%
Andress-Independent………….804 0.00%
Dodge-Prohibition……………140 0.00%
Only 62,038,965 votes and your boy would’ve won.
Hey, if we find the right track, can we tie Alphie to it?
It would have to be a train hauling nuclear waste.
The media and the antique MSM all play the same game because the know a large percentage of Americans lack the ability to think for themselves.
If you want a poll (which the always do) to favor the dhimmi’s they poll 75% + dhimmi’s and always get the answer they desire.
They ask questions like: Have you quit beating your wife? How would you answer it without incriminating yourself.
Only weak minds pay attention to any poll.
I have to agree with the initial assessment here. 5 years of constant bashing of the Republican party is taking its toll.
I don’t have a poll but some folk that I knew as fence sitters that generally voted Republican just opted out last time. Mainly because they think Bush is a pussy that can’t defend himself from bigger pussies.
It also seems that medical insurance is a problem. Most appear to want small businesses to be able to co-opt with other small businesses to cover more people and they don’t understand why this isn’t possible.
So Reasonable Americans can conclude the enforcing the no-fly-zones and sanctions for the next 50 years! (or until they killed enough US Airmen or built another bomb) is a good idea?
So we should have occupied Iraq by air and starved Iraqi kids for soccer teams, palaces, concubines and weapons until Uday, Qusay and Uncle Headless Al-Badtouch were dead?
All so that Kofi Annan, his thug son, The French, The Russians and George Galloway could get rich?
That’s what you are advocating, y’know….
At some point you are going to have to stop running from this point and answer it:
Invade on our terms or enforce the no-fly-zone forever.
What’ll it be alphie?
Nothing has driven home the education problem in this country to me so much as trying to talk to people about the health-care “crisis”.
I think that may be a bit cynical Scrapiron.
I think most of the problem is that people under estimate the power of propaganda (I could never be swayed!), and don’t examine issues past what Jay Leno says, as they have enough problems as it is.
I think it’s mind boggleing that billions are spent on advertising, yet people deny the MSM has any impact on events unfolding around the world.
Actually alphie is not advocating anything, he’s a member of a large fraction of our society that thinks juvenile carping is the equivalent of deep thoughts.
” ‘ Iraq dominates the national agenda, with 48 percent of Americans calling the war the single most important issue they want Bush and the Congress to deal with this year. No other issue rises out of single digits.’
Reasonable Americans can conclude that invading Iraq was a bad idea and we should end our involvement there, B Moe. “
Actually, not all of those 48% want us to end our involvement. Some of them say we should be fighting harder, or have more troops or some combination of both.
“This is the most important issue” does not equal “Let’s run away” .
Welcome to the Twilight of our age.
Hope you’ve got lamps.
I can agree that reasonable Americans can conclude that invading Iraq was a bad idea.
I disagree that it is reasonable to conclude we should end our involvement there, at this time.
The election was held, the decision was made, we are where we are. It’s chickenshit, myopic, unadulterated stupidity to think we should retreat now.
At least that’s what I think about the French point of view.
When should we retreat?
When it’s not
to retreat.
We’ll let you know.
What if that day never comes?
Then it’s going to look like Germany.
Circa 1938?
Sounds about right…
No, today, dumbass. How does it look ANYTHING like 1938 Germany?
I just love the rhetorical ingenuity used by the media in this case.
Step 1: Tell people that Iraq is a failure.
Step 2: Take a poll, asking people if Iraq is a failure.
Step 3: When asked to explain Step 1, cite results from Step 2 as justification.
To some degree Alphie is correct that these poll results do bode ill for the Republicans in the 2008 elections (at this point; it’s a long time to 2008). The problem is, that he’s using the poll results as indicators of how things are going in Iraq, when all they measure is American opinion. And they’re being taken by people who have gone out of their way to shape that opinion.
Alphie?
Iraq is the most important issue, but that says nothing about why it is, or how people think.
There is absolutely no question that the MSM has hammered Bush and the war in Iraq for the last four years. They fucking hate Bush, and always have. I know what I think and research issues to be able to draw my own conclusions, but the MSM sometimes even makes me wonder about things I know better than to wonder about. So what else is new?
The new century will be looked at through the eye of history as the age of illogic. I did shitty in school, but thank God I was educated before ther children took over the education system and turned it into a day care system. It is absolutely amazing to see the lack of logical thinking that passes for “education” today. Be stupid, but just make sure you feel good about it!
Example?
Bullshit. Polls are totally manipulative unless they are carefully crafted to avoid bias. And guess what? They never are.
If you have ever participated in a poll, you will know that every question is loaded, and if you want to be somewhere between yes and no, there is no slot for you. The questions are designed to get a specific answer. Polls are as bullshit as the people who participate in them, and the idiots that are swayed by them. They should be Constitutionally banned.
Polls are bullshit and alw2ays have been. Pay them no attention.
My God! Another half an hour before the liquor store opens! I’m thinking it might be a good Tuesday for sake. Yum. Peace be upon us.
TW: life is not quite as exciting after54
Jeebus!!
Where did that rant come from? And so early in the morning.
What I actually meant to say is that all anti-depressants should be replaced with Adderol. Then everyone could have a boner up to here.