posted November 18, 2008 05:30 AM            

"Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."

George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

On November 4th, 2008 millions of Americans were shocked that a man of Barack Obama's limited experience, extreme liberal positions and radical political alliances could be elected President of the United States. For many of these Americans, the explanation was rather simple... the news media, completely enamored with Obama, simply refused to do their job.

On Election day twelve Obama voters were interviewed extensively right after they voted to learn how the news media impacted their knowledge of what occurred during the campaign. These voters were chosen for their apparent intelligence/verbal abilities and willingness to express their opinions to a large audience. The rather shocking video below seeks to provide some insight into which information broke through the news media clutter and which did not.
http://howobamagotelected.com/ (click to view interviews with Obama voters)

Because obviously interviewing a relative handful of Obama voters, while interesting, is hardly scientific proof of anything, we also commissioned a Zogby telephone poll which asked the very same questions (as well as a few others) with similarly amazing results.

Zogby Poll

512 Obama Voters 11/13/08-11/15/08 MOE +/- 4.4 points

97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

And yet.....

Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes

Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter

And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!

Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.

Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we "gave" one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)

******

Before people flip out, this reflects, according to those who conducted the survey(s), primarily on the media, not on the individuals themselves.

posted November 18, 2008 09:40 AM            

>>>>And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!

posted November 18, 2008 11:40 AM            

There is so much HD flying around that I think people ultimately voted based on who they perceived as nice person. Thats what Powell did and a senior I knew. People ultimately vote for what their candidates stand for and not because somebody said anything against that person.

I warned McCain not to repeat Hillarys mistake without facts. But they were behaving like high school kids in this election

I found nothing wrong with Ayers after he spoke on TV post election. It was just vietnam protests with no harm to people. This country's freedom was due revolutionaries.

Why should we put them in jail?

posted November 18, 2008 12:37 PM              

quote:

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I think it reflects on the people themselves, and further I believe we've had a largely ignorant electorate for more than a decade, which is why fact checking is becoming a popular movement.

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At the end of the day, yes, we're responsible for ourselves - but the media sure isn't helping matters. In fact, they seem to be doing just the opposite. I'd say even longer than a decade btw .. but, I'm cynical.

quote:

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But then who will fact check those fact-check orgs.

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I know he's not PC, but allow me to briefly drag Tom out of the attic ~

"A democracy can not flourish with an uneducated populace"

posted November 18, 2008 02:08 PM            

quote:

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But then who will fact check those fact-check orgs.

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posted November 18, 2008 03:07 PM            

There`s an interesting interview where Charlie Rose was interviewing Tom Brokaw and they admitted about the only things they know about Obama came from his two books....Since Brokaw was a moderator of one of the Presidential debates, shouldn`t he have asked Obama some good & hard questions then??

So we wonder why no one knows squat when the interviewers/moderators don`t.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9330

( you know who, thanks for the link )

juni

------------------
~
What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted November 19, 2008 11:58 AM            

I have a completely different perspective from you, because I knew about all of those things [except the out of context coal one, and I don't know that the question about Obama's first election was stated how I would state it], and I primarily read MSM myself. I am on factcheck.org's email list, and obviously I come here to GU as well, but the only difference I see between myself and other regular people is one of curiosity.

The coal question isn't presented as if it took Obama's view clearly into consideration. http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/11/02/politics/fromtheroad/entry4564043.shtml
http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/11/02/palin-goes-after-obama-on-coal-comments/
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/29/1463840.aspx
http://www.wsaz.com/political/headlines/33726759.html

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posted November 19, 2008 12:26 PM            

Joe Biden's Plagiarism
Old: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE3DB143FF93BA2575AC0A961948260
New: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/us/politics/24biden.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Old: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/frenzy/biden.htm
New: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/08/analysis_what_bidens_pick_mean.html

New: (AP)http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/politics/bal-criticism0823,0,5527173.story

posted November 19, 2008 02:44 PM            

Recent: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121918996082755013.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Recent: Use the Find function, and search "DREW GRIFFIN" to get the point on this page: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0805/29/acd.01.html
(A show on MSM liberal tv)
Recent: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/29/obamas.first.campaign/index.html

Recent: (AP) http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2008Apr24/0,4675,ObamaapossFirstRace,0 0.html
http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/04/26/news/doc4812058dbbf36562874161.txt

Obama starting his political career at Ayers' home http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/04/AR2008100402126.html

2nd paragragh in a big NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html

NPR had Ayers on to discuss his relationship with Obama. I haven't listened to it. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97191218
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97112600

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8630.html

posted November 19, 2008 02:49 PM            

quote:

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But a 1970 pipe bomb in San Francisco attributed to the group killed one police officer and severely hurt another. An accidental 1970 explosion in a Greenwich Village town house basement killed three radicals; survivors later said they had been making nail bombs to detonate at a military dance at Fort Dix in New Jersey. And in 1981, in an armed robbery of a Brinks armored truck in Nanuet, N.Y., that involved Weather Underground members including Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, two police officers and a Brinks guard were killed.

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Gee, people were really killed so I take my support of these extreme radicals

posted November 19, 2008 04:10 PM            

I heard people talk about that new york times article and also remember them saying they couldn't have chosen a better day to publish that news. Who reads news papers on weekends(fridays/saturdays)?

And then on that article I was thinking no matter how good your intentions are but what if your plan to only blow up only buildings and leave people unhurt fails? Is it really possible to be revolutionary with zero collateral damage? And should such radicals be forgiven?

[*deleted this * perhaps will add later]

At work here so no time to articulate further.