Remember that lil “We Get The Gub'mint We Deserve...” vid I posted a couple of weeks ago? The one where Obama voters fell flat on their face when it came to basic civics knowledge? A common thought in comments to that post was something to the effect that McCain voters probably wouldn’t do much better. Well… The guy that produced that Obama-voter video has commissioned a similar study/poll of McCain voters, and the McCain folks really did do did BETTER than the O-voters. For what that’s worth.
There’s lots of detail here, including a short (five minute) video that I attempted to embed here at EIP but that Blogger won’t accept, for whatever reason (altogether now: frickin’ Blogger!). Detail such as…
- 35 % of McCain voters got 10 or more of 13 multiple choice questions correct.
- 18% of Obama voters got 10 or more of 13 questions correct.
- McCain voters knew which party controls congress by a 63-27 margin.
Obama voters got the “congressional control” question wrong by 43-41. - Those that got “congressional control” correct voted 56-43 for McCain.
- Those that got “congressional control” wrong voted 65-35 for Obama.
And there is lots more at the link above. The trickier question, of course, is “what does this mean?” Not a whole helluva lot, to my way of thinking, as there will always be uninformed voters on both sides of the divide. That said, it certainly looks like the McCain voters got it right more often than the O-voters.
(h/t: Lex)
Zogby is the big loser here. An important part of gathering together credibility on an issue, especially one or several politically charged ones, is a thick skin. It's indispensible because if you give me any conclusion you're about to publish, anywhere, I can find quite a few people who won't like it, and odds are many of 'em are going to make some noise.
ReplyDeleteZogby has shown himself to be among the first cattle to fall into line when the cowboy yells "yee ha." He went somewhere the Kos Kidz didn't want him to go, they yelled, he complied. Maybe he figures in an Obamanation there will be no consequence for that. But in the real world, what are his polls worth now? When you know he's only going to release the ones that don't cheese off the wrong people?
Idiotic move on Z's part. It's on par with McCain's decision to stop campaigning so he can devote his time to solving the crisis. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
A liberal co-worker just walked in on me watching that video and asked what it was. Like an idiot, I told her. Without hesitation she threw a few scathing sentences at me and finished with "And I don't care what you think!" She walked off crying. No kidding.
ReplyDeleteMorgan: Agreed on your Zogby comment. I was absolutely, positively shocked when I read those bits. There are at least two forms of censorship... the overt kind (such as military OPSEC stuff), and the peer-pressure sort, which is BY FAR the most dangerous. The Koz Kidz have tasted the fruits of peer-pressure intimidation and we'll see a LOT more of this tactic to come (I've seen too much of it, already).
ReplyDeleteAnd... I'll never trust a Zogby poll ever again. Not that I put that much stock in polls to begin with.
Andy: She walked off crying? The obvious comes to mind immediately ("oh, for cryin' out loud!"), but I sure hope you don't get your sensitive body parts caught in the PC-wringer for "harassment." This IS a Liberal we're on about here.
Sheesh.
Morons R' US....I still believe that you should take a test to vote. Way too many stupid people, looking for handouts deciding who runs the country.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Zogby, remember in '04' he had Kerry elected before the polls closed due to "Exit Interviews"....he is a BS artist.
Buck, As soon as I can get my hands on a hardcopy, I'll be posting quotes from the book I started listening to on the highway today: The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby. I'm only two chapters into it, but I can tell you I think you'd love it. I'm probably going to assign at least the introduction to my students next semester, early, as an introduction to why reading matters.
ReplyDeletePat: Agreed on the "means test" for voting.
ReplyDeleteDoc: Thanks for the recommendation. Shameful admission: I've not read a book this year. ALL my reading has been devoted to on-line articles and those periodicals to which I subscribe. This from a guy who used to work his way through two or three books a week.