The 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll
Welcome to the 60 Minutes/ Vanity Fair Poll's first offering for 2010. It contains some deep and probing questions on a myriad of topics ranging from the U.S. Constitution to cyber attacks, influential American writers to role models, qualities employers look for when they're hiring and opportunities to travel back in time as well as look ahead 50 years from now. Here we go!
It's nice to see that Americans still hold some things sacred. Forty-five percent of those asked would make no changes to the Constitution. Some changes were obvious (women's suffrage) and some didn't work (prohibition) but by and large this noble document has served us well. Of the people that would make a change if they could, 20 percent would abolish the Electoral College (too late to help Al Gore). Thirteen percent would lessen the separation between church and state and 11 percent would limit the right to bear arms. Very few people would mess with the presidency.
Athletic role models have rarely lived up to their billing. Think of the greatest athletes in the first quarter of the 20th century, Jim Thorpe, Bill Tilden, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, none of them a good role model. How about the generation after that, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams or Mickey Mantle? Not if you believe half of what was written about them. It could be argued that the current crop of "role models" is as bad or worse than ever. Americans have caught on to this and 45 percent think that sports stars should not be role models. Those of you that have kids know that it's hard to tell Johnny that his favorite player might be a jerk, but of the athletes listed as positive role models, Peyton Manning got nearly a quarter of the votes, far more than the others. So let's hope a biography isn't in the works to tell us what he's "really" like, it looks like Peyton has taken over for Tiger as the flavor of the month.
Almost six in ten respondents think that if a foreign country cyber-attacked an American company or military installation that it should be considered an act of war. As Google is finding out in China, it's pretty easy to determine what country a cyber attack originated from, but it's nearly impossible to find out exactly who is doing it and from where. Since it is very hard to prove short of a "smoking server" we suggest that technology companies and the U.S. government work in concert to develop better detection methods. It makes you yearn for simpler times like the Cold War with its' micro-film, poison tipped umbrellas and trench coated double agents.
Uncle Sam wants you...to leave his likeness alone! Our poll indicates that a vast majority of Americans don't want anyone to mess with our country's avuncular, bearded icon. Morgan Freeman is great at playing God but only 11 percent of those polled think he can fill Uncle Sam's shoes. Only five percent think our uncle should become our aunt and despite their good looks, older versions of Matt Damon, A-Rod and Keanu Reeves won't be gracing recruiting posters any time soon.
In a post Madoff, Wall Street scandal world, there appears to be a shift going on with regard to what qualities employers now value when hiring new employees. Twenty percent think that being hard working is still an enviable trait, while 18 percent think that a combination of two or more of the positive qualities listed would be desirable. But for half of those employers contemplating hiring a new employee this year, honesty is still the best policy.
A solid 40 percent of our illuminated poll-ees think that out of the six choices offered, that Mark Twain is the American writer that has made the most important contribution to literature. Ol' Samuel Clemens (remember Mark Twain is a nom de plume) handily beats out Ernest Hemingway who got 16 percent of the vote (Hemingway would have agreed, by the way). Emily Dickinson and Stephen King (possibly the first time their names have ever appeared in the same sentence) bring in 12 percent and 11 percent respectively. It appears that more recent authors like Toni Morrison and Dan Brown will need more time to see how their work ages. In fact Dan Brown didn't get any votes, no doubt hell think it's a conspiracy.
Nearly seven in ten Americans think their Awards shows are no longer "must see" TV. Of those few who think they still matter the Oscars nips the Grammys 11 percent to 10 percent. Meanwhile the Kennedy Center Honors 5 percent, and the MTV Music Video Awards 2 percent bring up the rear. And now the Emmy Award for the outstanding performance in a.... never mind it looks like almost nobody cares anymore.
What a juicy question until you think of how easily you could be shot, crucified, starved or stomped on if you went back to more primitive times. The "good old days" weren't necessarily that good, so it's not surprising to see that 40 percent of respondents think that here and now is the best place and time to be. And yet, how bad would it be to go back to 1967 and the "Summer of Love"? You might get lucky, and think of the money you could make picking every Super Bowl and world Series winner for the next 40 years.
Extra! Extra! Read all about it.... on second thought 50 percent of those invited to travel 50 years into the future to find out what we no longer do, need or have, picked "remember when there were printed newspapers"? Which ironically would preclude their ability to actually read about the demise of newspapers in a newspaper. Thirty-one percent think there will be no more cars running on gasoline and that may mean that our military might actually be out of the Middle East by then. If you're a single, bald man living in Florida 50 years from now, it appears that not much will have changed.
As we learned earlier, the Oscars seem to be out of vogue these days, in fact slightly more of those polled would rather fire someone, than win an Academy Award, ouch. It's not surprising that 26 percent, the highest percentage of respondents want to enjoy space travel in the future. But it is surprising that twice as many people would rather appear on Jeopardy than become President of the United States. We know that the president inherited a mess and his job is no bargain but you have to wonder what some Americans are thinking when they'd rather appear on a half hour game show than be the leader of the free world for four years and get all the perks that come with it.