How to support Bush
Ever ask yourself how anyone could support Bush? I've been saying all throughout this blog that Bush knows he'll lose if the campaign is based on facts. The majority of Americans simply do not support the positions President Bush supports. If the central debate of this election had been about the facts - an open and honest debate about the state of the world, our place in the world, and the candidates plans for dealing with it - Bush wouldn't stand a chance. So Bush's strategy has been to lie and distort at every turn.
Guess what? It works! The following is lifted and slightly edited from a new report by PIPA ( Program on International Policy Issues.) According to their website, PIPA is a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes and the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland. I thought this information was so great, I'm posting most of it here. You can also read it yourself if you want. Here's a link.
Here's what the PIPA surveys found:
72% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had actual WMD or a major program for developing them. (There were none according to the 9/11 Commission report and the Duelfer report.)
56% assume that most experts believe Iraq had actual WMD. (They don't.)
57% assume Duelfer concluded Iraq had at least a major WMD program. (He didn't.)
75% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda. (It wasn't.) 63% believe that clear evidence of this support has been found. (None has.)
60% of Bush supporters assume that this is also the conclusion of most experts, and 55% assume, incorrectly, that this was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission. (The Commission and experts have all concluded there is no evidence of any support.)
In all of the above, Kerry supporters overwhelmingly and correctly believe the exact opposite.
Only 31% of Bush supporters recognize that the majority of people in the world oppose the US having gone to war with Iraq. Among Kerry supporters, 74% assume that the majority of the world is opposed. What are the facts? Polls conducted by Gallup International in 38 countries, and more recently by a consortium of leading newspapers in 10 major countries show the overwhelming majority of the rest of the world oppose the US having gone to war with Iraq.
Here are a a few more things Bush supporters believe:
69% believe Bush supports the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (He doesn't. Kerry voted to adopt the treaty.)
72% think he supports the treaty banning land mines (He doesn't, Kerry does.)
51% incorrectly assume he favors US participation in the Kyoto treaty. (He doesn't, Kerry does.) 53% believe Bush supports the International Criminal Court. Note, this is after he criticized this very treaty and court so vociferously in the debates! (Before the debates, 66% believed he supported it. Kerry supports it, by the way.)
74% assume he favors including labor and environmental standards in trade agreements. (He doesn't, Kerry does.)
In all these cases, majorities of Bush supporters favor the positions they impute to Bush. To make this perfectly clear, a majority of Bush supporters favor positions Kerry holds and Bush does not.
Here's what the Steven Kull, the director of PIPA had to say in analyzing this data:
"The roots of the Bush supporters' resistance to information very likely lie in the traumatic experience of 9/11 and equally in the near pitch-perfect leadership that President Bush showed in its immediate wake. This appears to have created a powerful bond between Bush and his supporters--and an idealized image of the President that makes it difficult for his supporters to imagine that he could have made incorrect judgments before the war, that world public opinion could be critical of his policies or that the President could hold foreign policy positions that are at odds with his supporters."
Wait, you might cry, it isn't fair to just look at Bush supporters. How do Kerry supporters stack up on their candidate's positions? Fair enough:
Kerry supporters were much more accurate in assessing their candidate’s positions on all these issues. Majorities knew that Kerry favors including labor and environmental standards in trade agreements (90%); the US being part of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (77%); the International Criminal Court (59%); the land mines treaty (79%); and the Kyoto Treaty on climate change (74%). They also knew that he favors continuing research on missile defense without deploying a system now (68%), and wants the UN, not the US, to take the stronger role in developing Iraq’s new government (80%). A plurality of 43% was correct that Kerry favors keeping defense spending the same, with 35% assuming he wants to cut it and 18% to expand it.
Fascinating!
Guess what? It works! The following is lifted and slightly edited from a new report by PIPA ( Program on International Policy Issues.) According to their website, PIPA is a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes and the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland. I thought this information was so great, I'm posting most of it here. You can also read it yourself if you want. Here's a link.
Here's what the PIPA surveys found:
72% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had actual WMD or a major program for developing them. (There were none according to the 9/11 Commission report and the Duelfer report.)
56% assume that most experts believe Iraq had actual WMD. (They don't.)
57% assume Duelfer concluded Iraq had at least a major WMD program. (He didn't.)
75% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda. (It wasn't.) 63% believe that clear evidence of this support has been found. (None has.)
60% of Bush supporters assume that this is also the conclusion of most experts, and 55% assume, incorrectly, that this was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission. (The Commission and experts have all concluded there is no evidence of any support.)
In all of the above, Kerry supporters overwhelmingly and correctly believe the exact opposite.
Only 31% of Bush supporters recognize that the majority of people in the world oppose the US having gone to war with Iraq. Among Kerry supporters, 74% assume that the majority of the world is opposed. What are the facts? Polls conducted by Gallup International in 38 countries, and more recently by a consortium of leading newspapers in 10 major countries show the overwhelming majority of the rest of the world oppose the US having gone to war with Iraq.
Here are a a few more things Bush supporters believe:
69% believe Bush supports the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (He doesn't. Kerry voted to adopt the treaty.)
72% think he supports the treaty banning land mines (He doesn't, Kerry does.)
51% incorrectly assume he favors US participation in the Kyoto treaty. (He doesn't, Kerry does.) 53% believe Bush supports the International Criminal Court. Note, this is after he criticized this very treaty and court so vociferously in the debates! (Before the debates, 66% believed he supported it. Kerry supports it, by the way.)
74% assume he favors including labor and environmental standards in trade agreements. (He doesn't, Kerry does.)
In all these cases, majorities of Bush supporters favor the positions they impute to Bush. To make this perfectly clear, a majority of Bush supporters favor positions Kerry holds and Bush does not.
Here's what the Steven Kull, the director of PIPA had to say in analyzing this data:
"The roots of the Bush supporters' resistance to information very likely lie in the traumatic experience of 9/11 and equally in the near pitch-perfect leadership that President Bush showed in its immediate wake. This appears to have created a powerful bond between Bush and his supporters--and an idealized image of the President that makes it difficult for his supporters to imagine that he could have made incorrect judgments before the war, that world public opinion could be critical of his policies or that the President could hold foreign policy positions that are at odds with his supporters."
Wait, you might cry, it isn't fair to just look at Bush supporters. How do Kerry supporters stack up on their candidate's positions? Fair enough:
Kerry supporters were much more accurate in assessing their candidate’s positions on all these issues. Majorities knew that Kerry favors including labor and environmental standards in trade agreements (90%); the US being part of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (77%); the International Criminal Court (59%); the land mines treaty (79%); and the Kyoto Treaty on climate change (74%). They also knew that he favors continuing research on missile defense without deploying a system now (68%), and wants the UN, not the US, to take the stronger role in developing Iraq’s new government (80%). A plurality of 43% was correct that Kerry favors keeping defense spending the same, with 35% assuming he wants to cut it and 18% to expand it.
Fascinating!
posted by Charles S. Russell at 5:02 PM
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