Poll Shows a Majority of Obama Supporters Were Misinformed

Cross posted on Grizzly Groundswell

 A recent poll done by Zogby shows us that Barack Obama supporters were not fully informed about who they were voting for. This comes as no surprise considering the way that the media covered the two candidates.

 When Obama supporters were asked questions about some of the negative stories regarding either McCain or Palin they were well informed about them.

Ninety-four percent of Obama voters correctly identified Palin as the candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter, 86% correctly identified Palin as the candidate associated with a $150,000 wardrobe purchased by her political party, and 81% chose McCain as the candidate who was unable to identify the number of houses he owned.

 These were a few of the negative stories that were run against the McCain/Palin ticket and Obama supporters were well informed about them. One flaw in this poll appears on the question about which candidate said that Russia was visible from their home.

When asked which candidate said they could “see Russia from their house,” 87% chose Palin, although the quote actually is attributed to Saturday Night Live’s Tina Fey during her portrayal of Palin during the campaign. An answer of “none” or “Palin” was counted as a correct answer on the test, given that the statement was associated with a characterization of Palin.

 The only correct answer in my opinion was “none”, how does a satirical portrayal of a candidate count as if it were the candidate who made the comment? I guess they get credit for knowing who the satire was targeting.

 But when the questions turned to their own candidate it appears that Obama supporters were much less informed.

83% failed to correctly answer that Obama had won his first election by getting all of his opponents removed from the ballot, and 88% did not correctly associate Obama with his statement that his energy policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry. Most (56%) were also not able to correctly answer that Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground.

Nearly three quarters (72%) of Obama voters did not correctly identify Biden as the candidate who had to quit a previous campaign for President because he was found to have plagiarized a speech, and nearly half (47%) did not know that Biden was the one who predicted Obama would be tested by a generated international crisis during his first six months as President.

  I find this to be quite a contrast but again it is not surprising. I don’t find this to be an indictment of the typical Barack Obama supporter but rather an indictment on the media. The negative stories that were run against McCain were splattered all across the television day after day while the only place to find the stories on Obama were talk radio,( which Democrats are ready to shut down), and the blogs run by us angry, racist, radical, bitter gun and God clinging, members of the vast right wing conspiracy that so tortured President Clinton.  

 The media wanted Barack Obama to win and they got their wish, the coverage was slanted in favor of Obama and it seems to have worked to perfection. The only blame that can be laid at the feet of Obama’s supporters and their lack of information comes from the following question that was asked during the poll.

a question asking which political party controlled both houses of Congress leading up to the election — 57% of Obama voters were unable to correctly answer that Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate.

 I used the term “misinformed” in the title of this post, perhaps the correct word would have been “under-informed.” The media willfully didn’t inform the general public about much of Obama’s past and for that I can’t blame Obama supporters. But that last question about which party was in the majority in the house and senate? The lack of knowledge on that question falls directly on Obama supporters. If they didn’t even have the awareness that Democrats controlled both houses of Congress the last two years than perhaps I am putting too much blame on the media and not enough on the voters themselves.