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Rhinocrisy

02 November, 2005

BREAKING NEWS: Americans think for selves

The remarkable thing about this new CBS News poll is not the President's pathetic 35% approval rating, which is comparable to the approval of rock singers who bite the heads off house cats, but rather Americans' apparent ability to see through the mass media's decorous quiet on Plamegate. The press has remained unsensationalistic, keeping stories very understated and never suggesting that the President was a traitor. Yet Americans see the scandal as equal to Watergate in importance. When I remember the number of stories I saw about Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp eight years ago, I find it pretty amazing that the public still sees Plamegate as a much bigger deal.





Plamegate (11/06)Blowjobgate (1/98)Whitewater (3/94)Iran-Contra (2/87)Watergate (5/73)
Great importance 51%41%20%48%53%
Some importance
25%21%29%33%25%
Little or no importance
12%37%45%19%22%

Comments

I think these polls don't really measure what people think of the scandal at hand, but rather how it fits into their ideology and their hopes and fears. In this case, they fear terrorism and they are gradually, dreadfully, realizing that their government has made terrorist attacks more likely, rather than less. The same feeling I had on, if memory serves, September 17, 2001. Iran-Contra never had quite that level of immediate mortal terror. Yes, it betrayed all liberal democratic principles, but unfortunately, I suspect that few citizens of this liberal democracy really believe in liberal democratic principles. 

Posted by hedgehog


I take comfort in the plamegate numbers, but am shocked that blowjobgate was rated so high. Only two errorbars away from Iran-Contra? Good lord.


I'd kind of like to see how these numbers distribute by state. . .that's a great picture of GWB, btw, positively simian in the lipcentric bulging.  

Posted by Saheli



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