I'm afraid the Bush administration found something...

[Dawgs]

with these fucking polls. Just get some pollsters to ask some leading bullshit questions and then report the positive reports. Spin it to make the President look good, and you have no worries.

It's a good thing the mainstream media doesn't play along with this... sarcasm.

[liberalhistorian]

1. Harry Truman warned

about this happening with polls sixty fucking years ago, too bad no one listened. Everything he was worried would happen with polls has happened, and, unfortunately, it's too entrenched to stop it anymore.

[lavenderdiva]

3. liberalhistorian, would you please enlighten me as to what Truman said?

I grew up in Australia, and moved back to the States in 10th grade and missed American History and Civics. it sounds interesting though...

[liberalhistorian]

4. Sure, I can do that, but

I'll have to look up his exact words in my Truman biography. Basically, he said that there'd come a time when the polls would "take over", as politicians and the press would be far too reliant on them. Politicians wouldn't really stand for anything solid and would be too afraid to stand up for their convictions, and their every move would be based on polls. And the general public would come to vote not on the basis of who they really wanted, but on the basis of what the polls said. If they're for Candidate A but the polls show that he/she doesn't have a high rating, even if it's months before an election, people tend not to vote for him/her because they'll feel their vote is wasted.

And all of that is pretty much what's happened! Truman was a very brave president who did the right thing most of the time even though it was often politically unpopular, and he took a lot of shit for it. Too bad we don't have many like that anymore, Dem or Repub.

[lavenderdiva]

5. Thanks for responding liberhistorian...

I appreciate the info. Boy, doesn't it seem like this is exactly what we are living? He was right. Last night, on the History Channel, they had a really wonderful series on American Presidents, and how their tenures went. It was very interesting and I hope they replay it so I can record it. Thanks again! :hi:

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. For someone who claims not to pay attention to polls, he's turning

out to be pretty adept at it.