Daily Quote: "The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit."
Milton Friedman
Submitted by rresendes on Sun, 04/12/2009 - 5:00am
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Send to friendPrinter-friendly versionThis week, two Sunday Funnies.
Eleanor Clift is sort of like the Fruit of the Month club of political writers, she is the gift that just keeps on giving. In Lessons From the Gipper, she offers up advice for Republicans in Congress looking to keep their posts, as Obama continues to gain in popularity. Here are a couple Clift nuggets:
“Rank and file Democrats love Obama, giving him 88 percent approval in a recent Pew Research Center Poll. Republicans offer up a grudging 27 percent favorable rating, numbers that gibe with another Pew survey that finds voters concluding that partisanship is back, not that it ever went away.
Republicans are not rolling over for Obama the way Democrats did for President Reagan.”
First, it is funny how quickly she tosses aside partisanship, when in large part the raison d’être for the Obama campaign was to unify the country. Second, she compares, Democrats giving in to a newly elected popular President that campaigned on a central thesis of giving more freedom back to the individual. How sad, that any party ever has to debate and think about opposing such an idea.
The Republicans in office today are opposing what amounts to a significant shift in the compact between the government and the citizenry. If Obama’s plans are passed, the federal government will essentially control the health care system by subsidizing the cost of insurance, driving private parties out, expand its role in local education making communities dependent on them for financing, massively increase the welfare rolls by directly sending checks to citizens that do not pay taxes, and the list continues.
She concludes by comparing today’s Republican opposition to the Republican’s that controlled Congress in the early 2000’s, quipping;
“Republicans were riding high, and they wanted it all, an attitude born in arrogance that continues to shape the party today, to its detriment.”
Sadly, while those Republicans certainly deserved to lose, the country did not deserve the subsequent winners.
We discussed recently, how “figures lie, and liars figure” in our discussion of the importance behind understanding poll results. Well as we thought such references to the poll would quickly sprout up, here is an article by Terence Samuel in The American Prospect, which touts itself as “Liberal Intelligence” (can you say oxymoron), citing the very same NYT/CBS poll which used almost a 2 to1 Democrat to Republican weight in determining its answers. In discussing critics of Obama’s world tour he writes:
“There are no convincing explanations for this sort of ideological hyperventilation, except the unsatisfying, "that's how they roll." But the bottom line is that if Republicans continue these smears, they have no hope of being taken seriously when it comes time to debate the major issues confronting the country. This week's New York Times/CBS poll shows the depth of the GOP's troubles: The party faces a 58 percent disapproval rating among Americans. The crazy talk is not going to improve those numbers.”
As Reagan once said, “Now there you go again”. Citing a flawed poll to make a sweeping point about the political landscape may fire up a narrow partisan base, but over time it will only make the author lose credibility among those that count most – independents and moderates of both parties. This article rambles on, but there is not much to gain, other than a look at how the progressive/left wing of the Democrat party will try to shape their attacks on Obama critics in the weeks ahead.
The effects of Obama’s trip will not be known for a while, but I hope neither party tries to temper its discussions on the basis of polling numbers. The country will be much better served by having an open discussion of ideas from all political aspirants, and letting the voters ultimately decide which ideas should carry the day. However, once again we see how a faulty poll from a widely cited media outlet gets perpetually used to shape the public’s perception which ultimately shapes reality – whenever you run across such blatant attempts, make sure to dispute then vigorously.
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