Zogby Poll: Most Obama Supporters Uninformed About the Election Issues

Read the article.

This is not Republicans bashing Democrats.

It was a legitimate, scientific poll.

The numbers are pretty shocking, but at the same time indicative of the fact that many of Obama's supporters knew little of the issues, but chose to support him anyway.

Zogby Article

Zogby Poll: Almost No Obama Voters Ace Election Test

Survey finds most Obama voters remembered negative coverage of McCain/Palin statements but struggled to correctly answer questions about coverage associated with Obama/Biden

UTICA, New York -- Just 2% of voters who supported Barack Obama on Election Day obtained perfect or near-perfect scores on a post election test which gauged their knowledge of statements and scandals associated with the presidential tickets during the campaign, a new Zogby International telephone poll shows.

So all Obama's supporters basically did was learn a few of the negative McCain-Palin soundbites that the Obama-adoring mainstream media showered on them day after day, and that was enough for them to go to the polls and make their "informed decision" on who to vote for.

on what the voting public in this country has become.

[edit on 11/18/2008 by centurion1211]

Does this surprise anyone?

To be fair though I would be willing to bet the numbers wouldn't have been much better for McCain voters.

You have your select few who stay informed on the real issues, but most people are given their opinions by MSM.

Here are some more excerpts from the article I quoted in the OP. If anyone reads them all the shocking thing is how much negative the Obama supporterss "knew" about McCain and Palin, while not knowing much about their own candidates backgrounds at all. (my bolding and underlining for emphasis)

Ninety-four percent of Obama voters correctly identified Palin as the candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter, 86% correctly identified Palin as the candidate associated with a $150,000 wardrobe purchased by her political party, and 81% chose McCain as the candidate who was unable to identify the number of houses he owned. When asked which candidate said they could "see Russia from their house," 87% chose Palin, although the quote actually is attributed to Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey during her portrayal of Palin during the campaign. An answer of "none" or "Palin" was counted as a correct answer on the test, given that the statement was associated with a characterization of Palin.

Obama voters did not fare nearly as well overall when asked to answer questions about statements or stories associated with Obama or Biden -- 83% failed to correctly answer that Obama had won his first election by getting all of his opponents removed from the ballot, and 88% did not correctly associate Obama with his statement that his energy policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry. Most (56%) were also not able to correctly answer that Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground.

Nearly three quarters (72%) of Obama voters did not correctly identify Biden as the candidate who had to quit a previous campaign for President because he was found to have plagiarized a speech, and nearly half (47%) did not know that Biden was the one who predicted Obama would be tested by a generated international crisis during his first six months as President.

Originally posted by nyk537
Does this surprise anyone?

To be fair though I would be willing to bet the numbers wouldn't have been much better for McCain voters.

You have your select few who stay informed on the real issues, but most people are given their opinions by MSM.

And we all know that the MSM by and large supported Obama.

In other words, it is true to say that the MSM media decided the election.

Or maybe more accurately, that a majority of the voters allowed the MSM to decide the election for them.

Originally posted by centurion1211
Or maybe more accurately, that a majority of the voters allowed the MSM to decide the election for them.

Sure, but they always do.

It was much more blatant and one-sided this time around, but the media has always taken it upon themselves to shape public opinion.

It's despicable really.

Great post. I think the Zogby poll about sums up the election in a nut shell. The media influence is stunning.

Thanks to the MSM and a special wink and a nod to Chris Matthews and MSNBC. MSNBC, your check is in the mail.

Zogby, Zogby...Where have I heard that name before? Wasn't this the guy that "leaked" his poll to the Drudge Report close to the election showing a slight McCain lead, which only turned out to be noise, and was called out on it by other pollsters and looked like a fool because he was basically trying to drum up hits for his book?

MCCAIN LANDSLIDE WATCH OUT DEMS

Here's some more information on the push poll regarding Obama supporters

[edit on 18-11-2008 by davion]

That "poll" inserts a lot of confusing propaganda with a pre-set agenda added to it. IMO Zogby once again trashed it's credibility by involving itself in bias politics rooting for the conservatives, just like hours before the election they falsified a poll placing McCain in the lead. It's all pure crap IMO. The set of questions and information they are projecting as true has been many times debunked or clarified, meaning their information-togetherness is poor. Like I said, pure propaganda and nobody should take Zogby seriously. IMO when they lied about a poll moments before the election it was obvious they were no good, it's just a place of comfort for neocons now, that's if their viewers are informed of their crap. This should be put into the disinfo section, I reckon it would be perfectly qualified for such. When a company falsifies information and pushes propaganda anything from then shouldn't be purported as the truth.

[edit on 18-11-2008 by -zeropoint-]

Originally posted by -zeropoint-
That "poll" inserts a lot of confusing propaganda with a pre-set agenda added to it.

Exactly. Here's a few questions for the Zogby "poll".

How long will Obama's Socialist tendencies take to ruin the country?
Is George Bush a Great president or the Greatest president?
Is Obama inexperienced or just racist?

People vote based more on feelings than they do issues. Issues are sometimes too complex and confusing. In addition most people don't even know how to research issues for themselves. They depend more on the news, friends, or family to come up with their decision. No, this poll doesn't surprise me at all.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic

Originally posted by -zeropoint-
That "poll" inserts a lot of confusing propaganda with a pre-set agenda added to it.

Exactly. Here's a few questions for the Zogby "poll".

How long will Obama's Socialist tendencies take to ruin the country?
Is George Bush a Great president or the Greatest president?
Is Obama inexperienced or just racist?

My favorite question to the Obama voters to show their command of the issues was:

Which candidate said "I can see Russia from my house"?

Now, 87%, that's right 87% said the answer was Palin. No doubt, many of you reading this probably would have answered the same way.

However, the correct answer is "none."

That statement was in fact made by Tina Fey during a Saturday Night Live skit where she characterized Palin. Palin never said it, but the MSM drummed it into your heads so often that it was just accepted it as true. So how many Obama voters used that to firm up their belief that Palin wasn't ready to be VP? I guess the answer is 87% - and they were all wrong.

[edit on 11/18/2008 by centurion1211]

Obviously, Obama supporters are afraid to touch this topic with a ten foot pole. They must know in their heart of hearts that the poll is talking about them, as well.

To be fair, I'd imagine that if they had also done a poll on McCain supporters the number who didn't know the answers to those or similar questions would probably be similar. Americans in general are too lazy to research what the candidates stand for or even just the candidates in general. (At least I was until I started coming here and realized just how much I didn't know. ) Most people just believe whatever MSM spoon-feeds to them and don't stop to think that maybe what they are being told isn't the complete truth. It's rather sad really.

reply to post by Jenna


Possibly. But I haven't seen that article, or heard anything about such a poll of McCain voters.

If a poll showed a similar finding about McCain voters, I have to believe you'd see it plastered all over the news - given the MSM's obvious love for Obama and dislike of McCain.

Hard to believe they'd only poll one side of this, so it leads me to also believe they did poll McCain voters and found that there was nothing newsworthy to report. In other words, the McCain voters probably actually knew what the issues were.

reply to post by centurion1211


Neither have I, didn't mean to imply that one had been done that turned out the same. I meant it's likely that a lot of voters, regardless of who they voted for, don't really know much about the issues or candidates besides what they hear on the news.

reply to post by centurion1211



No surprise there. This is just proof that the majority of Obama supporters are too stupid to pay attention to the actual issues that affect this country and only want to pay attention to what they see on Comedy Central and Saturday Night Live.

Like I said. Obama could have beat his wife black and blue, the media would have reported it and most Obama supporters would have given the man a pass because they don't know how to think about things that really matter.

Mod Edit: Removed large quote of previous post and replaced it with Reply to

Mod Edit: Big Quote – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 19-11-2008 by GAOTU789]

reply to post by centurion1211


Yep, well this solves the question about media bias.

It was obviously musch more focused on the negatives that McCain/Palin were throwing around than the actual policy issues that BHO actually spoke about at length.


So much for Liberal bias.


Great Post!!!!! Good to see that we have supporting evidence for the bias of fear in the media and not liberal bias.

reply to post by nyk537

To be fair though I would be willing to bet the numbers wouldn't have been much better for McCain voters.

You have your select few who stay informed on the real issues, but most people are given their opinions by MSM.

Go ahead and prove it. John Ziegler, who funded this Zogby Poll, said he'll pay the expenses of anyone who can prove the same concerning McCain voters.

www.breitbart.tv...

Good luck.

Originally posted by sos37
This is just proof that the majority of Obama supporters are too stupid to pay attention to the actual issues that affect this country

"Actual issues that affect this country", huh? I don't know if I'd be bragging so much about that poll... Did you happen to peruse the actual questions?

Here are the 12 questions that were on that particular poll that you're bragging about:

Before this past election, which political party controlled both houses of congress?
Which candidate could not say how many houses they own?
Which candidate said they could see Russia from their house?
Which candidate had to quit a previous political campaign because they were found to have plagiarized a speech?
Which candidate won their first election by getting all of their opponents kicked off the ballot?
Which candidate wore clothes that their political party reportedly spent $150,000 on?
Which candidate currently has a pregnant teenage daughter?
Which candidate said that Obama would be tested in his first six months as president by a generated international crisis?
Which candidate claimed to have campaigned in 57 states?
Which candidate said their policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket?
Which candidate said that the government should redistribute the wealth?
Which candidate started their political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground?

THESE are the issues that YOU think affect this country?
How many houses John McCain owns? How much Sarah Palin's wardrobe cost or that her daughter is pregnant? Tina Fey? Gaffes and misquotes and twisted truths? Fully HALF of these 12 measly questions are nothing but gossip!

THESE are the issues that "affect this country", in your opinion?

Man... A lot has just become clear to me...

As I stated in another thread - when your voting base has shown that they cannot differentiate a comment made by a SNL star dressed up as a candidate as opposed to the real candidate, there is no clear expectation to believe that those same voters would know SQUAT about Obama's policies. You knew damn well what I was alluding to, you were just trying to spin it to make it seem like I cared more about wardrobes and other stupid issues that don't have anything to do with anything.

I'm not part of the group that can't separate reality from TV fiction.