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May 13, 2005
So What Do the Other 15% Think?
Don Froomkin writing in the Washington Post quotes a Wall Street Journal article (Subscription Required) that says,
Most Americans don't trust President Bush's motives when it comes to overhauling Social Security, a recent Harris Interactive poll shows.In fact, only 36% of all adults say Mr. Bush's comments on saving and strengthening Social Security are his real motives for changing the program, while 49% believe his real agenda is to dismantle it."
Just for the record, I can't find this poll, so I reserve the right to change my analysis when I do. It is not The Harris Poll® #28, April 14, 2005 that does address Social Security but not this exact issue. If it turns out that, the Wall Street Journal is extrapolating from this poll everything I say below is meaningless and so is the Wall Street Journal article as well as the New York Times article.
Despite my rants of creationism and evolution and on Social Security, I'm not really a black and white kind of person. If I squint just right, I can even see gray areas in the Social Security and evolution debates. But where is the definable space between thinking Bush is really trying to save social security and that he is trying to dismantle it? What are the other choices? There are always a few people who need more information and a few who can't make up their minds if they had all the information in the world but very seldom is it 15% of those queried.
My view is that is there are many loyal Republicans (~10% of those polled, the other ~5% are the usual "don't knows") who want desperately to support Bush but just can't bring themselves to say what they really feel and also can't bring themselves to lie on his behalf. So I read these numbers as an overwhelming repudiation of the President and his position(s) on Social Security. My guess is that nearly 60% of the population thinks that Bush is out to destroy Social Security. And I think they are correct. As I've said before, this man is not to be trusted.
Posted by Duane Smith at May 13, 2005 3:09 PM | Read more on Current Events |
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