Thursday, November 20, 2008
This is via Chatham Republicans and all over the place by now, but I did want to take note of it as well. A remarkable video:
Also worth noting are the results of a recent Zogby poll:
- 57 percent thought the Republicans still control Congress. Note that this is worse than a random result, since there are only two possible answers.
- Only 12 percent could identify Obama as the candidate who said that his energy policies would cause the cost of electricity to skyrocket.
The only issues on which the Obama voters were well-informed (or thought they were, anyway) had to do with Sarah Palin. Thus:
- 94 percent knew that Palin was the candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter, the highest correct score recorded by the Obama voters.
- Likewise, 86 percent knew that Palin was the candidate whose party bought her a $150,000 wardrobe.
Those answers suggest that the mainstream media's emphasis in this election was not exactly on the nuances of public policy. To be fair, though, they probably also reflect where the interests of Democratic voters tend to lie. This one is interesting:
- 87 percent said that Sarah Palin was the candidate who said she could see Russia from her house. Actually, it was Tina Fey who said that. Once again, though, it shows that Palin seemed to be the candidate who made the biggest impression, for better or worse.
It's worth noting that the Obama voters in Zogby's sample were 97 percent high school graduates and--rather shockingly--55 percent college graduates. It's almost enough to make you wonder about the future of democracy.
I have no doubt you could find a group of McCain supporters who couldn't answer straight up issues questions. The question is how integral those considerations are to the individual's voting choice. I happen to think this poll is pretty meaningful in this case, but that's my bias.
Equally interesting is what the interviewees believe they're knowledgeable about implies the truth a long-known principal in campaigning -- a positive message takes three or four deliveries before it "registers," compared to only one delivery for a negative message to make an impression. That's why candidates who are behind or under-funded always, always, always end up "going negative." It simply works. In this case it was even worse because you had a massively funded Obama whose message was multiplied by a slavish media.
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