Public Opinion Interesting But Often Unimportant
From former Labor Secretary Robert Reich:
A new poll released today asked this straightforward question: “Is it okay with you or not okay for political candidates in the U.S. to ask for assistance from a foreign government to help them win an election?” The results? A mere 7 percent of U.S. adult said it’s okay — while a whopping 81 percent said it’s not okay. More than 80 percent of self-identified Republicans, evangelicals, and rural Americans also said it’s not okay. This should serve as a wake-up call for Congressional Republicans who are bending over backwards to defend their Dear Leader. The American public isn’t on their side. The facts aren’t on their side. It’s time for them to put country over party and hold Trump accountable for his corruption. What do you think?
Glad you asked. It’s good that Americans feel this way, but actually, it doesn’t matter. A crime is a crime regardless of popular opinion on it. If Americans think that manslaughter or burglary should be crimes, that’s good too, but it wouldn’t change their status as crimes if Americans thought otherwise.
Suppose American’s disbelieved in the existence of elephants or think that Bolivia is in Europe. Guess what? Doesn’t matter.
Craig,
What is the point of an opinion poll worded to produce a false result?
Perhaps if the Poll had asked;
” Do you think the President should ask foreign leaders to investigate if prominent Americans have been perpetrating corrupt crimes involving citizens of their country and citizens of the US at the highest level? ”
You might have a very different answer.
The is no crime. Firstly, Joe Biden is not yet even a candidate. Even if he was, being a candidate doesn’t give you a free pass on criminal activity.
Secondly by now, I don’t think there’s a single person who believes Joe Biden or his son Hunter did nothing wrong!
The real question question must be, how much did President Obama know and condone? Was he part of the pay off?
The second question is, did HC know ? How involved was she in constructing the false documentation from Russia and the Ukraine to discredit Donald J Trump?
How many FBI and CIA officials were involved in the conspiracy?
Craig,
While were on the subject of polls, it would appear the slight downturn in the polls for t he President to 42-44% as an aggregate over the last three weeks, has returned to 44-47% this week.
The big winner in the polls has been Nancy Pelosi who has improved her standing to 38% from 29% three months ago. Unfortunately her disapproval rating has also increased to 53%.
The poll fortunes for the President seems to follow a pattern. As a scandal breaks, the polls lose a few points (never below 42%) then as more is revealed, the polls return to between 44-47%.
Interestingly,the President remains strong in the key areas he needs to win, where his popularity remains unchanged.