How Easy We Forget

All the political chatter these days can be confusing and also frustrating if you take it seriously. I know a lot of people do take it seriously as evident by the "tea party" protesters and, going back a few years, the "9/11 truthers". Judging by the cable news channels, it seems as though it ain't that hard to sculpt America's public opinion. If you don't believe me, check out this link when you get a chance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbyFeFhUTmI&feature=player_embedded.

I spent today watching the three major cable news networks to see how they are covering politics of the day. (i was bored after the world cup matches ended.) I tried to be as objective as possible. And I was the only one being objective!! The big story of the day has been the Rolling Stone article entitled the Runaway General in which the leading General in Afghanistan is portrayed at being at odds with the administration. Each network had it's own way of spinning this. Each network's agenda was pretty evident. One was anti-Obama, One was pro-Obama or anti-republican, and the last network was centrist but a little boring. It's no wonder that the popular networks are dominated by opinion shows. I guess we need to be told what to think and we only get two choices. That sucks!

The anti-Obama channel loves to point out the president's poll numbers, and yeah they have been falling since he stepped into his office last year. And they love to point out the 9.7% unemployment rate. So I wondered how past presidents fared in the polls during the same time in their presidencies. I found something very interesting. President Reagan, who is a hero to conservatives, had identical poll numbers and actually faced a higher unemployment rate of 10%. It just proves that poll numbers don't really mean anything. We, the American public have a short attention span and also forget very quickly.

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/obama_as_reagan.php