Report shows that Bush and Kerry supporters live in different worlds of reality

Exactly. it would be one thing if people disagreed on policy decisions made but agreed on actual factual events. This is not the case.

It is indeed frustrating to see that overwhelming majorities of Bush supporters take as fact information that is patently false.

JPM0016- that statistic is stunning. Frightening.

 

And many of us look at liberals the same way. Teh economy is fine despite what Kerry's campaign says, the tax cuts were not given to just the rich, and Bush did not creat loopholes for outsourcing.

Bottom line is there is a lot of lying coming out of both parties. Each side portrays everything the way they want it.

As for why Kerry's message hasn't worked let me throw something out:
He has a different message every week. If he would have been able to be consistent with his WMD/Iraq message it may have been a different race. He would have forced Bush to defend the war on terror (note: not the war on Al Queda or OBL) as being in Iraq. But Kerry tried the Iraq message but never got good results from it and focused more on the economy which is tough for him to defend. What does that mean? Either what you mentioned (reason 1 and 2) or because people didn't believe Kerry or people beleive we went in to fight terror (and uphold UN sanctions) and not OBL or Al Queda.

 

I disagree. I think facts are very important to the vast majority of people. However, people view facts from vastly different perspectives. Younger people TEND to be more idealistic with the "facts" while older people TEND to be more cynical.

True believers in both camps spin the facts by carefully and selectively choosing only the facts -- but not necessarily ALL the facts -- they want to use in their arguments. In fact, we all have become so fond of "spinning" the truth that there is no semblance of truth to behold. Because true believers see themselves as 100% right all the time, we have lost the art of compromise. The shades of gray are passe.

Once upon a time reporters, for example, were pledged to be accurate and fair. If they were accurate but not fair, they either became columnists or were out of the business in no time. If they were fair but not accurate, they were out of the business pronto. That's no longer the case ... on either count.

 

That sounds to me like you're saying people prefer consistent spin than facts.