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My subtitle for the article:
"Americans once again tempted to say what they think the interviewer wants to hear to classify the participant as informed."
Question 29 is muddied by the mention of Obama. What the question is realty assessing is the popularity of Obama. I don't suspect too many Obama supporters agreed w/ statement B, which suggests that Obama is incompetent in crafting a stimulus plan.
I am somewhat amazed -- and a little encouraged -- that as many as 36% think the economic stimulus plan is a bad idea.
When you consider that officials from both parties along with the great majority of economists and virtually all media people are clamoring for the stimulus, it's interesting that more than 1 in 3 appear to realize that it is a bad idea indeed.
I think dave has a good point. The question is asking as much about what people think of Obama as it is asking about the stimulus plan.
It is possible to believe that the stimulus plan is the better choice while believing that it is, if anything, too much as opposed to too little.
On the other hand, it's pretty unrealistic to expect an average citizen to have the knowledge and tools at their disposal to be able to make an informed comment about the stimulus plan. Especially one as big and as complex as this one.
The U.S. is not a nation of independent entrepreneurs confident of the future as long as we can satisfy the wants of neighbors producing similarly for us. We have an overwhelmingly corporatist economy, and "having a job" is largely a matter of having some corporatist authority's permission to play an entitlements game. When the entitlements to work seem scarce, we're sheepish. We don't think about what we can do to earn our neighbor's exchange tomorrow. We think about when the corporative state will provide us another role to play with enough entitlement to consume in the weekly notice. Frankly, I don't see that changing much.
Martin Brock: Huh?