Comments on: Voter Attitudes On Race Eyed In Key States

Interviews With Pa. Voters Show Racism Could Pose Challenge For Obama

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This year, their utterly meaningless ranking system, ready-made for Republican smear attacks, defined %u201Cliberal%u201D as members who voted, on January 18, to establish a Senate Office of Public Integrity to handle ethics complaints against senators. Given the Republican Culture of Corruption that still rules the Beltway, that may be anti-Republican, but what makes it %u201Cliberal?%u201D Similarly anyone who agreed in mid-March to the final passage of a bill implementing the 9/11 Commission%u2019s Homeland Security recommendations, is suddenly %u201Cliberal?%u201D And on May 9, Obama joined many other senators in voting to block individuals from serving on Food and Drug Administration drug advisory panels if they have conflicts of interest.
Let%u2019s hope more Americans start defining liberal this way. Because to me this all sounds very mainstream, even if John %u201CW%u201D McCain was on the wrong side of each vote.

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Putting public ignorance in context

By: Steve Benen @ 9:50 AM - PDT

I genuinely believed, foolishly, that one of the unintended side benefits of the media%u2019s fascination with Jeremiah Wright is that no one, anywhere, could still possibly believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim. After all, everyone in the country got to see a whole lot of Obama%u2019s Christian pastor and his Christian church. Sure, there are some uninformed people out there, and some willfully ignorant people who simply choose not to accept reality, but generally speaking, it%u2019s hard to imagine more than a handful of voters buying this foolishness.

And yet, the polls have been discouraging. The most recent Newsweek poll found that 11% of the public still thinks Obama is a Muslim. An NYT/CBS poll put the number at 7%. The Pew Forum found 10%.

As disappointing as this is, however, Ben Smith provided some interesting context to public confusion.

One relevant piece of context: Large minorities of Americans consistently say they hold wildly out-of-the-mainstream views, often specifically discredited beliefs. In some cases, those views should make them pretty profoundly alienated from one party or the other.

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(cont)

For instance:

22 percent believe President Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance.
30 percent believe Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
18 percent believe the sun revolves around the Earth.

In other words, if about one-in-10 voters buy into the nonsense about Obama, it%u2019s still a reasonably low number, compared to some other widely-held misconceptions.

I%u2019m just not sure, from a political perspective, whether this is reassuring or not.

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Senator Graham: McCain''''s Policies Would "Absolutely" Be An Extension Of Bush''''s

Huffington Post | June 8, 2008 12:37 PM

Senator John McCain has aggressively tried to distance himself from Bush in an effort to avoid being tagged by Democrats as running for Bush''''s third term. However, McCain''''s chief surrogate, Senator Lindsey Graham, did not adhere to that message during his appearance on ABC''''s This Week, with George Stephanopoulos.

Stephanopoulos asked Sen. Graham if McCain''''s tax and healthcare policies are essentially "an extension or maybe an enhancement of the Bush policies." Sen. Graham answered, "Yeah, absolutely."

Fact Check:

According to Congressional Quarterly, Senator John McCain has voted with President Bush 100% of the time in 2008 and 95% of the time in 2007.

[cbs4me3]

The hypocrisy, if you are a Hillary Democrat who plans to vote for John or if you are a republican and vote for John, then it seems you are labeled a rascist. In truth, Free Ride has no experience, no record of accomplishment, and lacks the trust of the American people. Besides these negatives, he has dissed Small-Town America, his wife was not proud of America until recently, his two reverends are jackasses one of whom spewed his venom at America, and he associated with the convicted Rezko and was in the presence of the Mideast figure who France convicted. Seems a good basis to question why he ought to be even nominated, but that was the fault of party leadership and the super delegates. So rascist? I don''t think so. Try seeing the reality and the truth and the fact that either Hillary of John has the experience, record of accomplishment, and trust of the American people. There is nothing rascist in supporting either Hillary or John for these reasons.

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See if you recognize any of these traits:

Right Winged Authoritarian (RWA) Followers:

Research has discovered a wide range of RWA scale relationships over the years, which can be organized into four general categories. (The Authoritarian Specter)

1: Faulty reasoning %u2014 RWAs are more likely to:

* Make many incorrect inferences from evidence.
* Hold contradictory ideas that result from a cognitive attribute known as compartmentalized thinking.
* Uncritically accept insufficient evidence that supports their beliefs.
* Uncritically trust people who tell them what they want to hear.
* Use many double standards in their thinking and judgments.

2: Hostility Toward Outgroups %u2014 RWAs are more likely to:

* Weaken constitutional guarantees of liberty such as a Bill of Rights.
* Severely punish %u2018common%u2019 criminals in a role-playing situation.
* Admit they obtain personal pleasure from punishing such people.
* Be prejudiced and hostile against racial, ethnic, nationalistic, sexual, and linguistic minorities.


(cont)

[robroyh390]

Message to limeys cthat can''''t mind their own business:It doesn''''t make any difference.


Posted by jesterbelle at 07:32 PM : Jun 09, 2008 "

And there was me thinking that it was only me that couldn''t give a *** about thousands of americans being killed and maimed - looks like americans couldn''t give a *** either

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(cont)

3: Profound Character Attributes %u2014 RWAs are more likely to:

* Be dogmatic.
* Be zealots.
* Be hypocrites.
* Be absolutists
* Be bullies when they have power over others.
* Seek dominance over others by being competitive and destructive in situations requiring cooperation.

4: Blindness To One%u2019s Own Failings And To The Failings Of Authority Figures Whom They Respect%u2014 RWAs are more likely to:

* Believe they have no personal failings.
* Be highly self-righteous.
* Use religion to erase guilt over their acts and to maintain their self-righteousness.

[jesterbelle]

Message to the american people - stop electing retarded braindead baboons (ie conservatives) as your leader


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Posted by RobRoyh390 at 07:24 PM : Jun 09, 2008

Message to limey *********** that can''t mind their own business:It doesn''t make any difference.

[jesterbelle]

jesterbelle....take care, I have to check the a/c...good night 4 aces


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Posted by JoeCoolSwat at 07:27 PM : Jun 09, 2008

See ya'' cop.