Thursday, April 26, 2007

Absolutely clueless and in denial about the midterms.

Here's Putz's take on the 2006 midterms:
Democrats -- who mostly made other issues than the war their priority in the '06 election and who lost (Ned Lamont, anyone?) when they put the war up top -- are now claiming that the elections were a mandate for surrender. Republicans may be tempted to endorse the idea that the elections were a referendum on Iraq, too, because that would get the GOP Congress off the hook for its miserable performance on, well, just about everything else. In fact, however, the elections were very close, and regardless of the war the GOP could have at least retained the Senate with only a very modest improvement in performance -- an improvement almost no one was willing to make.
Let's just throw out the laughably absurd notion that Ned Lamont was the only race in which Democrats ran on the war (Jim Webb anyone? Jon Tester? Patrick Murphy?). Let's also brush aside the cartoonish and so-very-nonpartisan "surrender" language.

Beyond the buffoonery and wrongness, it's clear from this paragraph that Putz can't read exit polls.
Importance of Iraq
Extremely/Very Important 72%
Somewhat/Not Important 26%

US War in Iraq
Disapprove 57%
Approve 42%

Should the US withdraw some or all troops?
Yes 55%
No 38%

Did war improve US security?
No 59%
Yes 35%
Said CNN:

[Bill] Schneider said as he interviewed voters across the country, "a lot of voters said, 'I'm going to vote Democratic.' They didn't even know the name of the Democrat, but they said, 'I'm going to vote Democratic because I don't like Bush, I don't like the war, I want to make a statement'."

Said Fox:

Voters across the nation said they disapprove of the job President Bush is doing and many said their vote for Congress was to express opposition to him. A clear majority said they disapprove of the war in Iraq, and most said they do not believe it has improved the long-term security of the country.

Said Pew:

As described above, Election Day exit polls revealed that most Americans viewed a variety of issues as important in the election. But Pew's post-election survey, which asked Americans to identify which issue was most important in their voting decision, finds that Iraq was the central issue of the campaign.
How is it that Putz, confronted with the sheer mountain of evidence from multiple, credible sources, that demonstrate again and again that the midterms were a rebuke of President Bush's Iraq war policy, can claim the opposite?

It just boggles the imagination, doesn't it?

Here's hoping the GOP actually listens to Putz, because if they really believe the war is a winner in '08, they're going to get an even bigger thumpin'.

UPDATE

I think Atrios answered my first question.
Probably the most successful kind of internet troll, the kind of troll unaware that it is actually attempting to troll, is the truly stupid person. They attract an immense amount of attention, bringing out all of our inner teachers. We cannot believe they are actually that stupid. We believe that maybe, somehow, if we explain things to them very slowly they will actually have the capacity to learn. But they don't. They are giant honking ignoramuses who don't know anything about anything and likely never will.

Yet we can't resist them, because we are fascinated by their stupidity. Fascinated that they manage to be that profoundly dumb yet still manage to tie their shoes, string complete sentences together, etc.

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