Last week, Rasmussen Reports released a poll that quickly worked its way through conservative media outlets, particularly far-right blogs, because it offered proof of just how nutty Bush critics really are. I understand the concerns, but the poll the right is relying on isn’t particularly helpful.
Here’s what Rasmussen found:
Overall, 22% of all voters believe the President knew about the [September 11] attacks in advance. A slightly larger number, 29%, believe the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. White Americans are less likely than others to believe that either the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance. Young Americans are more likely than their elders to believe the President or the CIA knew about the attacks in advance.
I’ll spare you the litany of links — there were a lot — though NRO’s Kathryn Jean Lopez seemed to speak for most conservatives when she described the results with three words: “Depressing, Demoralizing, Demented.”
Indeed, Jonah Goldberg was so taken aback by the Rasmussen poll that he milked it for an entire 750-word LA Times column, in which he cited the data to show that “a majority of Democrats in this country are out of their gourds.”
Not to be outdone, conservative broadcasters have been having a field day with this poll. Bill O’Reilly repeatedly referred to the results as “madness,” and claimed, “Sane people do not make that kind of leap.” Limbaugh said the poll showed that the Democratic Party is “literally a bunch of deranged, delusional radicals.” Michael Medved said the poll “pushes the party to the lunatic fringe.”
If these guys could just take a deep breath for a moment, they’d see how flawed the poll is.
The wording of the poll was certainly open to interpretation. Respondents very well could have been saying that the president was warned about bin Laden and terrorist threats in general shortly before 9/11, but neglected to take them seriously. That, far from some kind of paranoid delusion, is true.
As Media Matters noted:
Indeed, President Bush received a briefing on August 6, 2001, titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US,” which indicated that Osama bin Laden wanted to conduct terrorist attacks on U.S. cities, that members of his Al Qaeda terrorist network had lived in or traveled to the U.S. for years, that bin Laden had previously said he wanted to hijack an American aircraft, and that “FBI information since that time indicate[d] patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings.” Investigative journalist Ron Suskind wrote in his book The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 (Simon & Schuster, June 2006) that Bush responded to this report by telling his CIA briefer, “All right, you’ve covered your ass.”
Others have also touted this poll but ignored the ambiguity of the question entirely, in some cases misrepresenting the question and responses and ridiculing Democratic voters as delusional conspiracy theorists.
Indeed, 12% of Republicans in the poll said they believe Bush knew about the attacks in advance. Does this mean one in eight self-identified GOP voters are paranoid and delusional when it comes to Bush? Nearly one in five political independents came to the same conclusion. Are they all suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome?
Please. It’s a poorly-worded poll with ambiguous results. Hardly the basis for a conservative media maelstrom.