Bush Will Fail

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Headline Reuters: Bush Seen Unable to Achieve Much in First Term. "The majority of Americans believe that political divisions in the country will make it hard for president-elect George W. Bush to accomplish much in the next four years according to a Reuters-NBC poll. A poll of 521 voters conducted by Zogby revealed deep racial divides in the electorate...46% said the Texas governor would be able to get things done, but just over 50% said the country would remain divided and he would not be able to do very much."

You've got to know how to look at these polls to realize that this is the greatest news we could get. Here's why: Going into the campaign, and specifically the debates, what was the conventional wisdom? Well, the people and the experts all said that Algore would wipe the stage with George W. Bush and that Bush didn't have a prayer. And what happened? What happened is that Bush won decisive victories in two debates and held his own in the third.

We're in the exact same situation here, with people saying, "He can't possibly get anything done. The country is too divided. The country doesn't want anything done." This is just perfect. This is just ideal. Low expectations mean you can really sneak up on people.

The table here is being set for Bush by the same arrogant bunch of liberals and people in the press who underestimated him before.



-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), December 16, 2000

Answers

(For me, the following is an excellent example of both "slanted" poll questioning and biased reporting in the media. Here is a continuation of the article which Uncle Bob had posted...)

Katie Couric led off Thursday's The Today Show with the Zogby poll cited above, somberly reporting that barely 50% of the country would consider Bush legitimate. But USA Today's cover story that same day showed just the opposite - 80% of the country accepts Bush as legitimate.

How can one poll show a result 38-points different than the other? It's easy if you look at the questions asked. The first pollster asked, "If you defined legitimacy as the will of the people, do you consider a George W. Bush presidency legitimate or not legitimate?" Well, that gets 46% not legitimate. The USA Today question was, "If George W. Bush is declared the winner, and is inaugurated next January, will you accept him as the legitimate president or not?" That's the one in which 80% answered legitimate. Obviously, folks, the first question is written to produce a negative result, and the second produces a more honest result - and, of course, it's the first poll that the perky Katie, wearing black on the mourning show, reported.

-- CD (costavike@hotmail.com), December 16, 2000.


Congress gridlock is good for the US.

Congress will be at 50-50 with the vice president casting the tie- breaking votes.

It is much better to have a do nothing congress than to have a do bad congress.

Most of what congress has done during the last 50 years is bad, not good!

-- snuggy (snuggy@aol.com), December 16, 2000.


Time is too soon to tell...

Wait until next year for the fireworks!

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), December 16, 2000.


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