March 17, 2006

Something Fishy With this Poll: Plurality of Americans Want Bush Censured (UPDATED: Nope, I guess they don't!)

Critical UPDATE 3/17: A new Rasmussen poll has the numbers reversed! 45% opposed and 38% in favor of censure. A poll by the American American Research Group, released yesterday, had claimed that more Americans want Bush censured than didn't want Bush censured for alleged misdeeds committed in spying on suspected terrorists telephone calls. Is it possible the American people simply don't know what the word "censure" means?

Here is how Rasmussen worded the question:

Senator Russ Feingold has introduced a measure to censure, or publicly reprimand, President Bush for authorizing the NSA wiretapping program. Should President Bush be censured for authorizing the NSA wiretapping program?

Dan Riehl has further analysis. My original post from yesterday in which I questioned the legitimacy of the poll is below. I said something was fishy, and I guess I was right!

-------------------------

According to this poll, more Americans support censuring President Bush than oppose censuring President Bush.

I don't know anything about The American Research Group or about Dick Bennett, who runs the New Hampshire polling firm, but the numbers seem very odd to me. Either these numbers are WAY OFF, or every single Senate Democrat (with the exception of Russ Feingold) has lost their sense of the direction as to which way the political wind is blowing. Now, there are a lot of bad things I could say about Hillary Clinton, but accusing her of not being politically astute would never be one of them!

I don't find it hard to believe that 70% of Democrats would want Bush censured, but 29% of Republicans? Unless, of course, Andy Sullivan is still calling himself a Republican, I just don't buy it.

The same poll claims that 47% of independents want the President impeached. So, more independents want the President of the United States impeached than censured? What the hell kind of logic is that?

The Left, as expected, are soiling their panties over this one. They smell blood in the water and are pouncing. What is so interesting about the Left, which usually prides itself in its epistemelogical relativism, is how they claim to know reality as it really is. Glenn Greenwald makes the assertion that what the wiretapping program is breaking the law, as if that were an objective fact, and then advises:

Go forth and censure.

We know they weren't just spying on terrorists.

The President broke the law.

Are the American people actually operating under the impression that when the NSA spies on international telephone calls that this somehow doesn't fall under the Executive Branch's broad Article II power over foreign policy? That the President is breaking the law? It's possible. Like I said, when you say the same thing over and over again people sometimes begin to believe it.

But no matter how often this poll is cited in the next few days, I'll still have a hard time believing its true.