On gullibility and polls

Yesterday, my good friend James and I met in class and, just as the lecture began, he asked me the rhetorical question: "So Mark, are you a part of the MAJORITY of Americans that don't approve of Bush anymore?" You see, James has a unique set of views that range from pro-capital punishment to anti-war. It's great fun to trade jabs.

His question didn't really faze me at the time. And now I know why. Some things just don't lend themselves to credibility in my mind—one being the veracity of most of the polls cited in the media. Hearing that a "majority" of Americans say Bush is doing a bad job, or don't support the war, or (insert liberal campaign slogan here), just doesn't surprise me anymore because I've been hearing the same thing ever since Bush took office.

Ann Coulter (who has a recent string of worthwhile columns), did little work with some back files of New York Times headlines:

Poll Finds Most in U.S. Support Delaying a War (2/14/03)

Opinions Begin to Shift as Public Weighs Costs of War (3/26/03)

World's View of U.S. Sours After Iraq War, Poll Finds (6/4/03)

Study Finds Europeans Distrustful of U.S. Global Leadership (9/4/03)

Despite Polls, Pataki Backs Bush on Iraq All the Way (10/3/03)

Poll Finds Hostility Hardening Toward U.S. Policies (3/17/04)

Support for War Is Down Sharply, Poll Concludes (4/29/04)

Rising Casualties, One Falling Poll (5/2/04)

Polls Show Bush's Job-Approval Ratings Sinking (5/14/04)

Bush's Rating Falls to Its Lowest Point, New Survey Finds (6/29/04)

If these poll results were accurate, support for the war should be about negative 3,000 percent by now. The public would have stormed the White House, seized the president and flogged him to death.

James: I hope you and the rest of the MAJORITY keep the (blind) faith in polls--because that's all you have.

Crossposted at Western Washington Unraveled