I was peering through the details of the latest Newsweek poll, which shows a dead heat in the presidential election. Among the questions were these two.
16. Does John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate make you more likely or less likely to vote for McCain this fall – or does it not make much difference either way?
More Likely: 29% -- Less Likely: 22% -- No Difference: 47%And...
18. Do you think Sarah Palin is qualified to step in as president if she had to?
Yes: 45% -- No: 46% -- Don't Know: 9%So.. 46% think she is incapable of performing the only primary function of the vice-president, yet only 22% think that McCain's selection of her would make them less likely to vote for McCain. By definition, then, 24% of Americans polled in this survey are either idiots, or they just don't care what happens if their 72-year-old cancer survivor gets elected and dies in office.
Democracies do not function with ignorant citizens who do not take their jobs as voters seriously.
P.S. The same question about whether Joe Biden was qualified to step in had answers of 71%-19%-10% -- higher than Edwards, Lieberman, Cheney, Gore, Bentsen or Quayle.
1 comment:
I dont think your analysis is right here. I would include myself in the 47% (or whatever) who said the Palin pick makes no difference. I was NEVER going to vote for McCain, and I suspect this covers roughly 25% of voters. In my view, a good nuumber of the people in the 'no difference' column are partisans of one party or the other.
I'd like to see a post on two kinds of stupidity/ignorance:
1. of facts. e.g. foreign leaders, geography, boiling point, taxation rates, etc etc. This is of course depressing, but is in part due to poor education, and people can't be held wholly responsible for this.
2. of candidates. This actually irritates me more, and what you're getting at in this post. People are voting so unreflectively that they dont even know the basics about their OWN candidate. Of course a sensible voter would at least try to discover some clear info on both candidates, but perhaps that's too much to ask for. I think we can hold people responsible for this kind of ignorance.
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