By Beauty Damned

Depressing

Thanks to Nunya for posting this article in one of my threads today. It made me want to cry. It is so discouraging to me how many people feel totally justified making decisions without even attempting to be informed. The even sadder thing is that mainstream media seems to largely encourage misinformation, and distorted viewpoints and people don't seem to be aware of their resources or responsibility in really getting a clear picture of the issues. Additionally, as mentioned in the article, the ads being put out by the candidates and their supporting 527 groups do not focus on any of these key issues or point out the stark differences in where the candidates stand on those issues. What a huge waste of money. To me, the fact of people's lack of knowledge about these important issues is a huge indicator as to why Bush is still doing so well in polls. He benefits from the ignorance and misconceptions that so much of the public are mired in. I've provided this link before, but I'm posting it again, since, as we get closer and closer to these elections I feel more and more compelled to drive the point home and encourage people to get educated and to feel motivated to get out and vote.

Poll: Americans Uninformed on Bush, Kerry

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - If matching presidential candidates to their positions on basic issues were like a "Jeopardy!" category, most Americans wouldn't earn a single dollar.

More than half of those polled by the National Annenberg Election Survey didn't know President Bush alone favors allowing private investments of some Social Security money. Nearly as many didn't know that only Democratic candidate John Kerry proposes getting rid of tax breaks for the overseas profits of U.S. companies.

Importing drugs from Canada? That's a Kerry issue, but nearly half either didn't know or thought Bush also supported changing federal law to allow for drug imports from Canada.

Making abortions more difficult to obtain? Nearly one-third of those surveyed didn't know Bush alone supports more restrictions on abortion.

Eliminating the tax on estates? Two-thirds didn't know that's a Bush proposal.

After two years of presidential campaigning and hundreds of millions of dollars in political ads, many voters remained clueless about those and other policies, according to the survey. Annenberg analyst Kate Kenski blamed the candidates for not stressing their points of view and the news media for focusing on character assessments and the race itself.

"It's disappointing that people don't know where the candidates stand, given how much money's been spent on the campaigns," said Kenski, a senior research analyst. "In the absence of good information, voters guess and often guess incorrectly."

The poll of 1,189 adults was taken from Sept. 21-26 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

On the Net: National Annenberg Election Survey: http://www.naes04.org