Incredibly depressing poll.

[fskimospy]

Seriously. It's mostly a foreign policy poll, but this is yet another sign that one of our political parties has completely lost touch with reality.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~benv/files/poll responses by party ID.pdf

Q62: Almost 2/3rds of Republicans believe Iraq had WMD's in 2003.

Q64: Almost 2/3rds of Republicans believe Obama was born in another country.

Both of these questions ask about basic facts that are widely available from any number of news sources, and have been repeatedly and exhaustively discussed. There are many things in this world that reasonable people can come to differing opinions on, but these 2 are pretty cut and dried.

This is seriously downright scary.

 

[nageov3t]

with a question like that, I always wonder how many people answer "yes" because they actually believe it versus how many people will just say "yes" to anything that reflects badly on a politician they don't like, regardless of its merit.

we need a control question like, "Is Barack Obama the reincarnation of Hitler?"

 

[bfdd]

the majority of the world believes in a sky God, these numbers really surprise you?

 

[fskimospy]

with a question like that, I always wonder how many people answer "yes" because they actually believe it versus how many people will just say "yes" to anything that reflects badly on a politician they don't like, regardless of its merit.

we need a control question like, "Is Barack Obama the reincarnation of Hitler?"

I very much agree that partisanship plays a role here. I'm certain if you asked a bunch of Democrats questions about George W Bush you would end up with elevated negative response levels. I have not seen anything to this level however, and not about things that are basically beyond dispute.

 

[cybrsage]

YouGov's methodology is to obtain responses from an invited group of Internet users,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouGov

The wiki article does not say what their criteria is on deciding who to invite into their closed group. However, it is still far superior that just a posted poll on the Internet.

 

[Thump553]

with a question like that, I always wonder how many people answer "yes" because they actually believe it versus how many people will just say "yes" to anything that reflects badly on a politician they don't like, regardless of its merit.

we need a control question like, "Is Barack Obama the reincarnation of Hitler?"

Not really. Your control question is seeking an opinion, something not objectively verifiable (even assuming reincarnation is real) The two questions cited by the OP dealt strictly with FACTUAL matters and the answers given show actual, provable reality does not play a part in majority GOP opinion. That's a really scary situation.

 

[cybrsage]

Well, to be fair, the British, Russian, and American intelligence services all said Iraq did too...including Hans Blix in one of his last reports to the UN also said he found prescribed WMD devices.

 

[fskimospy]

Not really. Your control question is seeking an opinion, something not objectively verifiable (even assuming reincarnation is real) The two questions cited by the OP dealt strictly with FACTUAL matters and the answers given show actual, provable reality does not play a part in majority GOP opinion. That's a really scary situation.

True, but his question is so absurd what it would do is screen for the crazies, the spidey07s of this world who aren't deciding based on facts, but more on opposing obama.

 

[nehalem256]

Not really. Your control question is seeking an opinion, something not objectively verifiable (even assuming reincarnation is real) The two questions cited by the OP dealt strictly with FACTUAL matters and the answers given show actual, provable reality does not play a part in majority GOP opinion. That's a really scary situation.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/obama-tv-ad-targets-women-in-key-states/

“The son of a single mom. Proud father of two daughters. President Obama knows that women being paid 77 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as men isn’t just unfair,” the narrator in the ad says over images of Obama as a boy with his mother, as a dad with Sasha and Malia, and other working women.

Apparently it does not for Democratic President Barack Obama either

 

[gevorg]

Seriously. It's mostly a foreign policy poll, but this is yet another sign that one of our political parties has completely lost touch with reality.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~benv/files/poll responses by party ID.pdf

Q62: Almost 2/3rds of Republicans believe Iraq had WMD's in 2003.

Q64: Almost 2/3rds of Republicans believe Obama was born in another country.

Both of these questions ask about basic facts that are widely available from any number of news sources, and have been repeatedly and exhaustively discussed. There are many things in this world that reasonable people can come to differing opinions on, but these 2 are pretty cut and dried.

This is seriously downright scary.

Actually, its a very impressive............... propaganda machine! :twisted:

 

[fskimospy]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/obama-tv-ad-targets-women-in-key-states/

Apparently it does not for Democratic President Barack Obama either

Anyone else shocked that nehalem found a way to bring up women?

 

[schneiderguy]

I bet if you polled Democrats a majority of them would say that assault weapons bans reduce crime (factually false).

The point of this thread should be that blindly pledging allegiance to a particular political party tends to lead to stupid beliefs. Democrats are hardly immune to this, as nehalem256 and myself have pointed out.

 

[Anarchist420]

I'm pretty sure that if you asked liberals "if the government taxed the "1%" at 40% of their income this year, would it close the deficit?", then I'm sure 2/3 of them would say yes.

 

[fskimospy]

I bet if you polled Democrats a majority of them would say that assault weapons bans reduce crime (factually false).

The point of this thread should be that blindly pledging allegiance to a particular political party tends to lead to stupid beliefs. Democrats are hardly immune to this, as nehalem256 and myself have pointed out.

Empirical research into the effectiveness of assault weapons bans has received probably one one millionth the amount of coverage that Iraq WMDs and Obama's birth certificate have.

The sad part of this poll is not that people might believe wrong things, its that they continue to cling to wrong beliefs despite enormous public discussion of those issues. There is a very good chance that Democrats might have missed study findings on assault weapons. It is much less likely that 2/3rds of Republicans have just entirely missed the news for the last 5 years.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

It is much less likely that 2/3rds of Republicans have just entirely missed the news for the last 5 years.

Given where they get their news from, probably not.

And that's the real problem.

 

[Thump553]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/obama-tv-ad-targets-women-in-key-states/




Apparently it does not for Democratic President Barack Obama either

I'm confused-are you actually claiming that decades of hard numbers proving women do not get equal pay is an illusion? Are you intending to argue the Census data is false-data that has been pretty consistent for decades, no matter who does the study?

It seems to me your argument is just one more bit of proof of reality being ignored by the GOP because it conflicts with their chosen doctrines.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

*bangs head on keyboard*

So.....fucking......dumb.

 

[nehalem256]

I'm confused-are you actually claiming that decades of hard numbers proving women do not get equal pay is an illusion? Are you intending to argue the Census data is false-data that has been pretty consistent for decades, no matter who does the study?

President Obama knows that women being paid 77 cents on the dollar for doing the same work as men

I bolded the important qualifier that makes what Obama "knows" a falsehood.

 

[dmcowen674]

Incredibly depressing poll

Seriously. It's mostly a foreign policy poll, but this is yet another sign that one of our political parties has completely lost touch with reality.

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~benv/files/poll%20responses%20by%20party%20ID.pdf

Q62: Almost 2/3rds of Republicans believe Iraq had WMD's in 2003.

Q64: Almost 2/3rds of Republicans believe Obama was born in another country.

Both of these questions ask about basic facts that are widely available from any number of news sources, and have been repeatedly and exhaustively discussed. There are many things in this world that reasonable people can come to differing opinions on, but these 2 are pretty cut and dried.

This is seriously downright scary.

Are you actually surprised after being in here for how long?

The very same Republicans from this poll post right here that they believe those two questions so this should not be a shock.

 

[Jaskalas]

Given where they get their news from, probably not.

And that's the real problem.

The real problem, righties have 1 news station. Lefties obviously don't have any.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouGov

The wiki article does not say what their criteria is on deciding who to invite into their closed group. However, it is still far superior that just a posted poll on the Internet.

Look cybr...you have other idiots who are wrong just like you about WMD...at least you know you have company! 62% of your fellow GOP'ers are ignorant too.

Now we all know the truth is that there weren't any, so don't go and intentionally lie and claim there were, because intentional lying is against the rules, LOL. You wouldn't want to break the rules again would you?

Are you also in the 55% of GOP's that believe Obama was born in Kenya too?

 

[nehalem256]

Actually it would seem to me that the more disturbing result is that

9.6% of Democrats believe Obama was not born in the US
and 11.3 are not sure.

So 1/5 Democrats are not convinced Obama meets the qualifications to be President

 

[glenn1]

Q62: Almost 2/3rds of Republicans believe Iraq had WMD's in 2003.

Q64: Almost 2/3rds of Republicans believe Obama was born in another country.

Both of these questions ask about basic facts that are widely available from any number of news sources, and have been repeatedly and exhaustively discussed. There are many things in this world that reasonable people can come to differing opinions on, but these 2 are pretty cut and dried.

This is seriously downright scary.

I can see a small amount of wiggle room in the WMD question - Saddam did use chemical weapons against the Kurds, and we also found a small amount of chemical ordnance after the invasion. Certainly there was no evidence found of an active nuclear program, which was the reasoning most used to justify the invasion. Respondents should have still answered "NO" since that's the more accurate answer, however.

As for the birther question, the people answering in the affirmative is probably a mix of those who ignorantly believe he was born in another country, and those who know he wasn't but are acting contrarian to be ornery or to get a rise out of the pollster.

 

[Smoblikat]

I KNOW obama was born in another country, but i also know that there were no WMD's in iraq.

 

[trenchfoot]

I KNOW obama was born in another country, but i also know that there were no WMD's in iraq.

AHA! So you're another client of the same astrologer that Nancy Reagan consulted to advise her husband on national security matters, eh?

Either that or you're obviously an agent of the CIA, NSA, FBI or some other top secret gov't agency that vetted Obama when he filed his statement of candidacy, amiright? lol