The Daily Background
| Poll shows cause for concern: Are some voters just plain stupid?
by Arlen Parsa
Let me ask you a question. It’s very simple, and there is only one right answer to it. The question?
What do you think of Fred Thompson’s health care plan?
The only right answer is, of course, “he doesn’t have a health care plan (yet).” He hasn’t talked about health care at all, and even if he had talked about it as he talks about some issues, he talks about them in very abstract, vague ways and he certainly hasn’t laid out any detailed plans or policy positions yet (in fact he doesn’t seem too sure what his stances on some issues are).
So, did you get the answer right? If you didn’t, don’t worry– you’re not alone. A new poll asked voters the exact same question, apparently to see if they would answer despite not having any knowledge about the matter.
Likely GOP voters were asked how familiar they were the healthcare plans of all their candidates, “even including non-candidate Fred Thompson.”
“The results? In Nevada 29% said they were familiar with Thompson’s healthcare plan. In New Hampshire it was 15%, in Iowa 18%, in Florida it was 22% and in South Carolina had 24% with some idea about his plan.”
The poll was by AARP and concentrated on issues of particular importance to seniors (Results PDF.) What’s disturbing is that so many (GOP) voters are willing to falsely claim that they’re familiar with something that doesn’t even exist. What’s more disturbing is that voters are willing to give an opinion on whether or not Thompson’s non-existent health care plan was good or not. Talk about prejudice one way or the other.
23% of likely GOP voters in Florida (remember senior citizens make up a good deal of Florida’s likely voters) felt that Thompson had already “addressed the issue of ensuring that all Americans have access to affordable, quality health care.” He hasn’t even mentioned health care in any of his speeches yet.
Again in Florida, more likely GOP voters felt they needed to know more about Tommy Thompson’s health care plan than they needed to know about Fred’s. And Tommy, who was the Secretary of Health and Human Services, actually had a health care plan.
Meanwhile in Nevada, 3% likely voter Republicans thought that Fred Thompson had dealt with the issue of health care the best of all the candidates running. I guess for them, not addressing the issue at all is the best way to address health care- the issue that is consistently rated the most important domestic concern in the United States.
You’re in idiot. For one thing, the question didn’t ask “how familiar they were the healthcare plans of all their candidates (sic).” But then, you didn’t really want people to go read the actual AARP report, did you? For another thing, while he hasn’t yet come out with specifics, he has come out against government provided health care ala most of the Democratic candidates. For some, that would be enough for them to say that he has “addressed the issue of ensuring that all Americans have access to affordable, quality health care” SOMEWHAT well.
This is a perfect example of why most blogs are completely worthless
Hi. Next time you call somebody an idiot, you might want to make sure you don’t call them “in idiot” instead.
If you’ll notice, the words “how familiar they were the healthcare plans of all their candidates” are not mine, but somebody I’m quoting. But in essence that is what the respondents were asked. They were asked if they knew enough about each candidate’s health care plan so that they could make a choice. There were questions like “Would you say (INSERT CANDIDATE NAME FROM APPROPRIATE PARTY LIST) has addressed this issue very well, somewhat well, not too well, not at all well, or do you not know enough about (CANDIDATE NAME) on this issue?“
Talk about stupid voters,the Democrats just elected Obama. LOL