A LITTLE MORE FOX POLL FUN

How a Fox News story describes a result in Fox's latest poll:

As for judicial philosophy, by 60 percent to 26 percent Americans think the Supreme Court should interpret the U.S. Constitution based on what the Framers meant when they wrote it rather than on what feels appropriate in today's world.

Will it surprise you if I tell you that, in the actual poll question (PDF), there was a bit more to that second choice than the news story tells you?

36. How do you think the Supreme Court should interpret the Constitution? (READ RESPONSES "1" AND "2")
SCALE: 1. No matter what the outcome, the court should follow what the Framers meant when they wrote the Constitution 2. If necessary, the court should ignore what the Framers meant to reach the outcome it feels is appropriate for today 3. (In between/Combination) 4. (Don't know)

(Emphasis added.)

I've looked high and low in the news story and, well, that "ignore what the Framers meant" bit is never mentioned.

Whoops! Must have been an accidental oversight!

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Oh, and just in case you were worried that Fox somehow forgot to include any questions designed to make America stupider, well, rest easy:



I'm going to go way, way out on a limb here and say that, if the GOP ticket had won in November, I rather doubt that Fox's polling unit would be asking "muzzling" questions about, um, McCain's VP.