The 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll
As the country continues to get pelted by weather events and suffers from the normal post partum Super Bowl let down (over 100 million viewers), it is up to the 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll to brighten up your mid-winter doldrums with some timely questions of interest. We start with the usual suspects, the economy, the presidency, and Supreme Court decisions. Then we ask about potential Internet worries, celebrities caught doing bad things, geography, and finally the state of television shows and what people miss most about childhood. No matter your age, this month's poll has something for everyone.
Fifty two percent say it's the economy, stupid! (Note to Mr. James Carville: you should have trademarked that phrase.) It has been said that all human action is born of self interest, and people's economic lives correlate directly to their standard of living. Still, 20 percent say that healthcare reform should be the top priority, and although they may be correct due to its potentially deleterious future effect on our economy, can Congress afford to keep chasing that dream while jobs are still as scarce as hen's teeth?
Fully two thirds of our respondents disagree with the Supreme Court's ruling. As conservatives rail against activist jurists that overstep the strict tenets of the Constitution, it is interesting to observe that their "inactions" can cause an equally noisy upheaval of the status quo.
Was Scott Brown elected senator despite posing nude or because of it? Again, two thirds of respondents feel a woman would not have won had she bared it all. Yet thankfully for his political future he did not "take it all off," leaving his manhood obscured by his arm, and thus softening (pardon the pun) the offense. If a woman posed suggestively but not completely naked, would that mitigate the damage to her political future? Seventy seven percent of the women asked say no.
Ever since Ronald Reagan looked into the eyes of Americans and asked, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" that question has been the litmus test for measuring how satisfied Americans are with their economic condition. Now in a world of instant messaging and Twitter, the duration has been reduced to six months. Approximately 60 percent of those asked are about the same, 30 percent are worse off and 10 percent are better off.
Half of those polled knew that the Dominican Republic shared the island with Haiti. The other half ought to attend more geography bees. Most everyone knows about Christopher Columbus' landing in 1492 when he first spotted a natural paradise and today most everyone is aware of the tremendous destruction and sad state of Haiti after one of the worst natural disasters the Caribbean has ever known.
California is a behemoth and a quarter of those polled think that a divide and conquer strategy might tame the unwieldy beast. Not as many (nine percent) think dividing New York is a good idea, or combining the Dakotas (nine percent) or Virginias (14 percent) for that matter. A quarter of those polled don't know or care and a solid 20 percent think that the nation's capital should be given statehood. Just what we need, two more senators from Washington.
To err is human, to forgive divine. A third of those asked would forgive our roster of people who fell from grace and 15 percent wouldn't forgive any of them. Of those willing to choose one person, 22 percent would forgive Tiger, with men twice as likely as women to show forbearance. The question could use a little clarification, are we forgiving him for his philandering ways or for making us watch a bunch of journeymen golfers we would have never heard of if he were competing now? The other men that messed with women fared very poorly. But it seems, the only thing worse than messin' with the ladies is messin' with people's money. Bernie Madoff gets absolutely no sympathy.
On our "Oh to be young again" topic; It all sounds pretty good from here, but the lack of responsibility wins big getting almost 40 percent of the vote. Summers off and sense of wonder combine for another 40 percent. If you think you can do it all over again, wake up, you're dreaming. You might get the summer off, but it could be either good news or bad news depending upon whether it's voluntary or not.
Here's a painful dose of reality for reality shows, 58 percent of the people asked think they're getting worse, ouch! Sitcoms (50 percent), late night talk shows (37 percent), and commercials (35 percent) also got dissed. In fact the only category that more people thought was getting better versus worse was network news. Now if only the advertising people could get in a room and figure a way to create soaring viewership of these improved shows. Sounds like a good premise for a new reality show.
It appears that our respondents have plenty to worry about every time that they log on to their computers. They're pretty evenly divided over whether to worry about getting their identities stolen, having their computers infected with a virus, or having their kids pursued by online predators. Do these worries have any basis in reality? As Woody Allen said, "just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean someone's not following you". By comparison, it makes seeing those old photos taken in your youth when you were making a fool of yourself seem almost quaint, well almost...