June 04, 2004
Poll shows Americans don't know Kerry
Although it shouldn’t surprise anyone, the latest poll about Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry shows that more and more Americans don’t know what to think about that ol’ Massachusetts liberal.
The National Annenberg Election Survey found that potential swing voters in the battleground states have not yet decided how they feel about Kerry. A fourth see him favorably and a fourth see him unfavorably, while almost four in 10, 38 percent, remain neutral about him.[...]
``Opinions have not been firmly formed about Kerry yet,'' said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. ``There is a large open question on whether Kerry can pass the presidential threshold.''
I don't blame them.
Could it be because of his flip-flopping? Medalgate? Or maybe because he likes to shore up each and every possible political angle by supporting and opposing the same measures?
Case in point:
"We went into Iraq with too few troops to prevent looting and crime, and we failed to secure nearly a million tons of conventional weapons now being used against our troops," Kerry said Thursday.
Would that before or after he opposed the Iraq war? Or supported it? Or voted against Iraq war spending. Wait, didn't he vote for that?
I'm confused. As well are the American people. No wonder they don't know who Kerry is. Indeed, Kerry seems just as confused as the rest of us.
Posted by Deleted Author at June 4, 2004 10:02 PMInteresting how you try to spend this inherently ambiguous fact into something negative about Kerry. When someone’s neutral, it means they’re neutral. If they thought he was wishy-washy and unpresidential, that would register as a negative feeling.
Another POV, why do the polls show Bush tying or even getting beaten by someone people feel that they don’t know? Doesn’t this suggest that people have serious doubts about the prez?
Could it be because of his flip-flopping? Medalgate?
Or perhaps 70 million dollars worth of misleading and sometimes outright lying negative ads by President Bush that are flooding the airwaves? :)
The poll numbers discussed in the original post are limited to the opinions of “potential swing voters in the battleground states”, that is, the 11% of voters who are still undecided. The rest of the voters who’ve already made up their minds aren’t even part of the survey Dustin hangs his whole “Americans don’t know Kerry” thesis on (which would explain Woody’s question as to why Kerry is tied/ahead despite those numbers).
The Annenberg survey, which does not release head-to-head results, looked at those who are persuadable in the battleground states, about 11 percent of the overall population.
Also, the expression “more and more” implies that the number of people in the “don’t know” category is growing, which seems ludicrous to me.
-Cf
Ah yes, that would explain it. So the poll basically says that people who haven’t made up their mind about the election haven’t made up their mind about the challenger. No foolin’
Posted by: Woody Mena at June 5, 2004 02:41 PM
