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Fintan
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Joined: 18 Jan 2006
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 Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 3:12 pm Post subject: Great Poll Numbers on American's Doubts About 9/11 |
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Spin, spin, spin, spin. It's everywhere.
A recent poll of suspicions by Americans about the 9/11 attacks and
about the role of the CIA in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq is very
revealing. It shows the CIA in a very bad light indeed.
But by the time the polling agency and the mainstream media are done
with spinning the poll results, it's the Democrats --not the CIA-- who are
in the spotlight.
First, here's my take on the latest poll:
| Quote: | Americans Distrust CIA, Bush on Iraq and 9/11
by Fintan Dunne - Friday, May 18, 2007
Over 85% of Americans believe the CIA lied to them in the runup to
the invasion of Iraq, and 29%, believe the agency knew about the 9/11
attacks in advance.
Just 8% of voters say the CIA was Very Truthful before the War in Iraq.
However, 52% believe the CIA was Not Very Truthful or Not at All Truthful
before the War. While another 33% believe the CIA was Somewhat Truthful.
Americans of all political shades trust Bush more than they trust the CIA.
About 22% of all voters believe the President knew about the 9/11 attacks
in advance, compared to the 29% who think the CIA knew.
Democrats are the most distrustful of Bush, with 35% saying he did know,
26% not sure if he did, and 39% believing he did not know.
Republicans trust Bush more. Only around 12% say the President knew
in advance about the attacks. By comparison, 18% of those not affiliated
with either major party, believe Bush knew.
White Americans are less likely than others to believe that either the
President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. But young
Americans are more likely than their elders to believe both did know.
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Here's the polling agency's summary of their own data. Notice the way
the issue is spun as a Democrats v. Republicans issue, and the focus is on
distrust of Bush -rather than of the CIA:
| Quote: | 22% Believe Bush Knew About 9/11 Attacks in Advance
Friday, May 04, 2007
Democrats in America are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure.
Republicans reject that view and, by a 7-to-1 margin, say the President did not know in advance about the attacks. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 18% believe the President knew and 57% take the opposite view.
Overall, 22% of all voters believe the President knew about the attacks in advance. A slightly larger number, 29%, believe the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. White Americans are less likely than others to believe that either the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. Young Americans are more likely than their elders to believe the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance.
However, just 8% of voters say the CIA was Very Truthful before the War in Iraq. Another 33% believe the CIA was Somewhat Truthful. Most, 52%, believe the CIA was Not Very Truthful or Not at All Truthful before the War.
Still, 57% have a favorable opinion of the CIA. Thirty-six percent (36%) have an unfavorable view.
Former CIA Director George Tenet doesn’t fare so well. He is viewed favorably by 29% of voters and unfavorably by 49%.
Just 12% have followed news stories about Tenet’s new book Very Closely. Another 29% have followed the stories Somewhat Closely. Fifty-six percent (56%) have not been following the news stories about Tenet.
Crosstabs available for Premium Members only.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/22_believe_bush_knew_about_9_11_attacks_in_advance |
Now here's Jonah Goldberg in the LA Times (and syndicated in other
papers), trying to spin the bad news about attitudes to the CIA, into
a story about the conspiratorial attitudes of Democrats:
| Quote: | Just how crazy are the Dems?
A new poll on 9/11 indicates that they definitely have a paranoia problem.
by Jonah Goldberg - LA TImes - May 15, 2007
MOST FAIR-MINDED readers will no doubt take me at my word when I say that a majority of Democrats in this country are out of their gourds.
But, on the off chance that a few cynics won't take my word for it, I offer you data. Rasmussen Reports, the public opinion outfit, recently asked voters whether President Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks beforehand. The findings? Well, here's how the research firm put it: "Democrats in America are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance. Thirty-five percent of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know and 26% are not sure."
So, 1 in 3 Democrats believe that Bush was in on it somehow, and a majority of Democrats either believe that Bush knew about the attacks in advance or can't quite make up their minds.
There are only three ways to respond to this finding: It's absolutely true, in which case the paranoid style of American liberalism has reached a fevered crescendo. Or, option B, it's not true and we can stop paying attention to these kinds of polls. Or there's option C — it's a little of both.
My vote is for C. But before we get there, we should work through the ramifications of A and B.
We don't know what kind of motive respondents had in mind for Bush, but the most common version has Bush craftily enabling a terror attack as a way to whip up support for his foreign policy without too many questions.
The problem with rebutting this sort of allegation is that there are too many reasons why it's so stupid. It's like trying to explain to a 4-year-old why Superman isn't real. You can spend all day talking about how kryptonite just wouldn't work that way. Or you can just say, "It's make-believe."
Similarly, why try to explain that it's implausible that Bush was evil enough to let this happen — and clever enough to get away with it — yet incapable either morally or intellectually of doing it again? After all, if he's such a villainous super-genius to have paved the way for 9/11 without getting caught, why stop there? Democrats constantly insinuate that Bush plays politics with terror warnings on the assumption that the higher the terror level, the more support Bush has. Well, a couple of more 9/11s and Dick Cheney will finally be able to get that shiny Bill of Rights shredder he always wanted.
And, if Bush — who Democrats insist is a moron — is clever enough to greenlight one 9/11, why is Iraq such a blunder? Surely a James Bond villain like Bush would just plant some WMD?
No, the right response to the Rosie O'Donnell wing of the Democratic Party is "It's just make-believe." But if they really believe it, then liberals must stop calling themselves the "reality-based" party and stop objecting to the suggestion that they have a problem with being called anti-American. Because when 61% of Democrats polled consider it plausible or certain that the U.S. government would let this happen, well, "blame America first" doesn't really begin to cover it, does it?
So then there's option B — the poll is just wrong. This is quite plausible. Indeed, the poll is surely partly wrong. Many Democrats are probably merely saying that Bush is incompetent or that he failed to connect the dots or that they're just answering in a fit of pique. I'm game for option B. But if we're going to throw this poll away, I think liberals need to offer the same benefit of the doubt when it comes to data that are more convenient for them. For example, liberals have been dining out on polls showing that Fox News viewers, or Republicans generally, are more likely to believe that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11. Now, however flimsy, tendentious, equivocal or sparse you may think the evidence that Hussein had a hand in 9/11 may be, it's ironclad compared with the nugatory proof that Bush somehow permitted or condoned those attacks.
And then there's option C, which is most assuredly the reality. The poll is partly wrong or misleading, but it's also partly right and accurate. So maybe it's not 1 in 3 Democrats suffering from paranoid delusions. Maybe it's only 1 in 5 , or 1 in 10. In other words, the problem isn't as profound as the poll makes it sound. But that doesn't mean the Democratic Party doesn't have a serious problem.
jgoldberg@latimescolumnists.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-goldberg15may15,0,3962183.column?coll=la-home-commentary |
Same underlying data.
With lots of Spin.
It's lies Jim, but not as we know it.
Only good new is that if these were people's responses
to the pollsters, the real numbers are much, much worse.
Last edited by Fintan on Thu May 17, 2007 8:48 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Fintan
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Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 6098
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| Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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Rambling on.....
The other big news is the huge percentage of 'don't knows.'
Normally the 'don't knows''' are a poor third in Yes/No questions.
But fully 26% of Democrats are unsure whether Bush knew of
9/11 in advance. Among those not affiliated with either major party,
23% don't know. What's the opinion among Republicans?
We haven't got a breakdown of the Rasmussen Poll, but they say:
| Quote: | | Republicans reject that view and, by a 7-to-1 margin, say the President did not know in advance about the attacks. |
Ramussen is saying that 87.5% of Republicans say he did not know.
That leaves the remaining 12.5% to be divided between 'Did Know'
and 'Don't Know'. Say we break that down as 7.5% saying 'Did Know'
and the remaining 5% unsure.
So the 'don't know' scores are:
Democrats 26% => 11.7 of all voters (if Dems are 45% of voters)
Non party 23% => 2.3% of all voters (if NP's are 10% of voters)
Republican 5% => 2.2% of all voters (if GOP are 45% of voters)
Overall => 16.2% of all voters 'don't know' if Bush was lying.
Add to that the 22% of all voters who believe the President knew,
and you have a total of almost 40% of all voters who are not buying
the 'My Pet Goat' official fairytale. And closer to 50% who are not
buying the idea the CIA "knew nothing."
Considering that many people will only express these kind of deep doubts
in private, while playing dumb to a pollster, then those are some very
heartwarming 9/11 poll stats indeed.  |
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Rumpl4skn
Joined: 11 Feb 2006
Posts: 2848
Location: 36� 3'N x 86�40'W
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 12:26 pm Post subject: |
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Good analysis, FD.
At some point, the "everyone who thinks differently than me is obviously just copletely crazy" wears thin and goes away. When your only counter to an opinion is "he's nuts", you've drawn up your last battle plan, General Custer.
But, as many of us here speculate, the design is not for this to remain undisclosed - just with a reality that's not as we know it, Jim. 
As usual, the focus is on "the Left" believing "crazy stuff", and making the crazy stuff they believe a watered-down version of the real suspicion. This keeps the raw truth from ever reaching past the internet, and the milk-toast version as the debate point.
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