Is this the explanation? Good grass-roots reporting Boston Globe

[kclown]

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/10/26/misperceptions_linger_with_candidates_help/

[displacedtexan]

1. Republicans are comfortably dumb. (eom)

[troubleinwinter]

2. ???? A couple of paragraphs, please.

[Meryton]

3. here you go

WHEELING, W.Va. -- The man was furious at anyone who questioned the cost of the Iraq War.

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''Memories in America are very short," said the man, a self-confident executive in his 30s, lounging in a sports bar with friends. ''It drives me nuts. Don't they remember the planes going into those towers?"

Asked gently who he believed was responsible for the attacks, he seemed annoyed. ''Certain people in Iraq were involved," he said knowingly, almost spitting out the words.
...............
A Gallup poll completed last week showed an unprecedented number of respondents describing themselves as having strong feelings about President Bush. And the strong passions cut both ways: 71 percent of Republicans said they ''strongly approve" of Bush, and 68 percent of Democrats said they ''strongly disapprove" of the president.

No other president -- not Ronald Reagan when he was accused of trading arms for hostages, or Bill Clinton facing impeachment -- provoked such strong reactions, according to Gallup.

The explanation for the Bush divide seemed to come from another poll released last week, this one by the Harris organization. It found sharply diverging views of the facts about Iraq and the 9/11 attacks between Bush's supporters and Democrat John F. Kerry's. In many cases, Bush's supporters -- representing a large swath of the electorate -- went beyond the assertions of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in describing dangers posed by prewar Iraq.

Forty-one percent of all respondents, for instance, agreed that ''Saddam Hussein helped plan and support the hijackers who attacked the US on 9/11." This interpretation persists even after Cheney, in his debate with Democratic rival John Edwards, denied ever suggesting such a thing.