Opinionated (but wrong)

One of Ned's favorite blogs, politicalwire.com, reports on yet another poll, and this one might just mean something. (Ned's readers know what he thinks about polls, in that a pollster can get any result he/she wants by manipulating the questions and categories of responses. But we digress.) The report is as follows:
"A new AP-GfK Poll finds that Americans 'with the strongest opinions about the country's most divisive issues are largely unhappy with how President Obama is handling them...'"
Now set aside the vagueness of the phrase 'largely unhappy', and focus on the 'strong opinions.'
Ned has maintained for years that Americans tend to be poorly educated and poorly informed about national issues, many of which are complex and do not lend themselves to black/white "solutions."
They don't understand the Constitutional basis for social welfare legislation for one thing. The Constitution clearly states that one of the responsibilities of the Federal Government is to "promote the general welfare," for example.
Ned fears that these potential voters with the strongest opinions about issues probably have the facts behind the issues wrong. For example, polls indicate that many Americans "believe" the Obama administration was responsible for the TARP bailout, when in fact it was Bush and his Wall Street stooges, including his Goldman Sachs Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson. Moreover, Americans are simply wrong about climate change. They don't understand the science and are easily manipulated by oil and coal propaganda, not to mention Right Wing misinformation and downright lies.
Many of them say they believe in angels. Many of them believe in the Second Coming, and moreover, that it is imminent, a belief that has held sway among certain Christianists since the time of St Augustine.
They say they believe Social Security is nearly bankrupt, which is nonsense.
They believe Medicare is near bankruptcy, which is also nonsense, although Medicare will have to undergo some wrenching changes, and the Obama Health Care Law is heading in that direction.
No, friends, the problem with people being wrong about things they know nothing about is they may choose their candidate on that basis, and there is where the Democrats are in DEEP DOODOO unless Obama gets OFF HIS ASS and starts playing hardball with the people who hate him and wish him ill.