Thank you, Kathy, Yellow Dog, and Tom, for soldiering on in my absence. Then I come back to the likes of this and I don't know why I don't just quit this and take up stamp collecting:
Americans See Views of GOP Candidates Closer to Their Own
Americans perceive Jon Huntsman, Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul as closest to themselves ideologically, and Michele Bachmann and Barack Obama as furthest away.
A USA Today/Gallup poll asked Americans to rate their own ideology -- and the ideology of the eight major presidential candidates -- on a 5-point scale with 1 being very liberal and 5 being very conservative. Americans' mean score on this scale is 3.3, meaning the average American is slightly to the right of center ideologically.... Of the better known candidates, Romney's and Paul's 3.5 scores are closest to the average American's ideology....
Yeah, Obama's a big extremist while Ron Paul, who thinks Medicare and Medicaid are unconstitutional, to take one of a nearly limitless number of examples, is right in the mainstream.
And I don't know what to say about this:
Ten percent of Americans think Michele Bachmann is liberal. Michele Bachmann! I know these are approximately the percentages for belief in a flat earth, but still, it's troubling. When was the last time a national election was decided by a margin smaller than 10%?
Americans: we're not ready for democracy.
That's funny...democracy was working just swell when America elected a first-term junior Senator whose major achievement in life was writing two autobiographies.
ReplyDeleteObama wouldn't have been my first choice. He seemed as if he'd have been a cannier executive than he's turned out to be, and more of a true (if compromised) Democrat than he's been, but his ability to generate enthusiasm always seemed to be based on his ability to seem like what voters wanted him to seem like.
ReplyDeleteLarge numbers of respondents don't know who Santorum and Huntsman are, but each gets an 8% 'liberal' rating. So that's not a seriously held opinion about their politics; either the respondents are just putting the pollsters on, or it's some kind of knee-jerk response.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Steve.
ReplyDeleteWe missed you - and the guest hosts were great!
Also, on top of the poll, Erick the Dread, CNN's designated donut-buyer and radical nihilistic moron, is trying to tell everyone to run away from Little Boots' LIBERAL record.
I think his boy's Santorum.
And that's a comment for another time...
Welcome back, and thanks for the guest-posting gig!
ReplyDeleteLiberal ? You found one ? Me, I think perspective is sadly lacking. Maybe a friendly anarchist and union supporter could educate even the likes of you with some contrasting links to show you how badly the Overton Window and the corporate press of the bipartisan warmaking tyranny have skewed your perceptions.
ReplyDelete( Don't thank me all at once ! )
http://mollymew.blogspot.com/