An obviously frustrated and probably angry Republican named John Ziegler has produced a nearly ten minute minute video in which he uncovers a shocking fact about this year’s presidential election: Many Obama voters were ill-informed about the issues.
To back up his claim, Ziegler cites a Zogby poll which shows that almost 60% of Obama supporters believed Republicans control Congress.
I know Republicans are frustrated and angry that they’ve been rejected by an overwhelming majority of the country, but come on. Do they actually believe that Obama voters are significantly less informed than McCain voters? Do they believe that interviews with various Obama supporters proves anything?
They do?
Ok, then how difficult is it to find interviews with ignorant or bigoted McCain supporters? Turns out, not very:
I’m not sure why anyone would cite a Zogby poll as evidence of anything other than the existence of the Zogby poll. On a list ranking the 23 most cited polls of 2008 by accuracy, Zogby came in 21st — second from the bottom, just like John McCain’s college ranking.
But if Mr. Ziegler is looking for ill-informed citizens, he doesn’t need to look any farther than GOP-tv’s audience:
A new study by the Pew Research Study shows that viewers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report have the highest knowledge of national and international affairs, while Fox News viewers rank nearly dead last. . .
The results about Fox News echo findings of previous surveys. In 2003, University of Maryland researchers studied the public’s belief in three false claims – that Iraq possessed WMD, that Iraq was involved in 9/11, and that there was international support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The researchers stated, “The extent of Americans’ misperceptions vary significantly depending on their source of news. Those who receive most of their news from Fox News are more likely than average to have misperceptions.” Fox News viewers were “three times more likely than the next nearest network to hold all three misperceptions.”
It hurts to be turned away, rejected, and denied. As a Democrat, I know. But John, the election was two weeks ago. Anger is only the second stage of grief in the Kübler-Ross model. It’s time to move on.
You and your extremely white Christian fundamentalist friends can believe that the only reason Obama won was because his supporters are ignoramuses and that if only people knew the truth that you so obviously possess, McCain would today be president-elect. Believe it. It’s probably true: Obama’s election had little or nothing to do with his intelligence, the campaign he ran, the fact that Sarah Palin is utterly unqualified for office, or that your party has created a real economic disaster during Bush’s eight years in office.
Here’s to hoping the GOP builds its 2010 and 2012 strategies on your insights.
on Nov 18th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Well, let’s say Zogby’s numbers are wrong. Instead of 82.6% of Obama voters not knowing he won his first election by getting his opponents kicked off the ballot, what do you think is the actual percentage of Obama voters that did not know this under-reported fact?
on Nov 19th, 2008 at 9:50 am
You mean I voted for a Marxist-Leninist, Muslim, Arab sleeping one man terror cell, Man. That’s a bummer, Man.
on Nov 20th, 2008 at 4:01 am
Nah, you just voted for a man who believes it is the function of government to take money earned by industrious persons to give to less industrious persons.
on Nov 21st, 2008 at 1:15 am
I thought the point was that the media didn’t “share” with the public both sides of the argument. You can (and have) boil this down to “Dems are stupid”, but that misses the broader argument. In fact, you use the Iraq-9/11 connection (or lack thereof) to bolster your argument, but you seem to miss that this is exactly Ziegler’s point. In 2002, I’ll bet you were a Bush lover (or were you outside that 90% of supporters?), but even if you weren’t, the fact remains that many felt (and feel) that the media didn’t do enough to vet these stories. Ziegler’s point is merely that (and yes, I know his conservative background and I agree that had McCain won under similar circumstances, Ziegler would not have made the opposite point). But your quick desire to call this “Obama Voters Are Dumbasses” misses all that.