Republicans Consistently More Knowlegeable About Current Events

Eight questions on Obama?

I'm not so sure most of the respondents to this poll have even heard of him.

 

zing!!!

 

I looked at the link , saw no actual quiz, just the results. Link me to the quiz?

Either way some issues Democrats inherently care more about than Republicans, and vice versa. These factors are also affected by who is in power, btw. (for example, I guarantee you more Democrats started giving a crap about who we were bombing when Bush was doing the bombing, rather than Clinton...)

 

Wow! What amazing insight. Please, communicate more with emoticons. It tells us so much.

 

It's linked at post 23.

I think the questions were relatively topical. No analysis, understanding or even thinking required.

My only experience with Pew was that they provided a lot of funding for an environmental group I worked with -- but I think they're relatively non-partisan. Can't say the same for the weekly standard. And again -- the self-described republicans did (almost) as shamefully as the self-described democrats. Yeah Team!

 

Wow, who are you and what have you done with DonnyMost. Excellent point. I always see folks pointing to hypocrits on the other side, not often about themselves. Kudos sir.

 

Well said. I went to the Westroads Mall up here in Omaha right after lunch to get a copy of the Journal; largest mall in the state, million square feet of retail space and not a Waldenbooks or Barnes & Nobles anywhere to be found. Most of the library branches aren't even open on Sunday. The irony is we've probably got more people going to college than any time in history; something like 60 - 75% of high school students.

 

Along the same lines as the above, I thought this was interesting:

[rquoter]
"Balloon boy" gets more interest (and coverage) than the war in Afghanistan



"The public expresses a range of feelings about the news concerning the war in Afghanistan: a majority (56%) often feels that "it seems like the same news about the war in Afghanistan all the time, nothing ever really changes"; 42% say they do not often feel this way. Nearly as many (53%) say they do not always have enough background information to follow the news about Afghanistan. By contrast, far fewer Americans (26%) say the news about the war is so depressing they would prefer not to follow it. Only 20% say they feel guilty about not following news from the war in Afghanistan more closely."

Additional data crunching at the Pew Research Center, via Talking Points Memo.

-------------

The War in Afghanistan has now gone on longer than the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Iraq War. It's been over 8 years since October 7, 2001. Next milestones to surpass - American Revolution (8 years 4 months, 16 days) and the Vietnam War (8 years, 5 months, 21 days).

[/rquoter]

source

Television News has become a malange of oddities and curosities, with an occasional feel good story thrown in for measure. It looks a whole lot like Reader's Digest did 50 years ago.

 

I agree - I don't see this as really a partisan quiz, and Pew is a fairly respected polling service.

That said, I'd be curious to see the results in 2004, maybe asking about hot-button issues then (Iraq, etc). Back then, we heard the crazy things like how many Republicans believed Iraq was responsible for 9/11. I wonder if it's just that the party in opposition pays closer attention than the people in power.

For example, I know in the various Governor's races coming up, Dems are having a problem getting out the vote - the projections show less of the Dem demographics are planning to turn out this time. I don't know if it's a complacency thing, but I wonder how much anger drives the public's interest, and that anger exists more when "their guy" isn't in power.

 

You could very well call it the "watchdog" effect.

When Obama got into power I noticed a lot of Democrats going to sleep at the wheel in terms of current events and Republicans going TOTALLY APESCAT over the tiniest little things.

 

LOL!

Way more people than Basso do it.

 

The response to the Iran-Israel sharing a border question is just damned ridiculous. I'd love to give props to my fellow independents for at least being over half-right, but come on, our freaking prolonged war with a country that's actually between them didn't even tip anyone off?? Damn.

This poll should not be used as a partisan tool (unless anyone actually thinks being marginally less stupid is something to brag about). This is just embarassing.

 

My guess is our culture's over emphasis on specialization and not giving a **** after working 10+ hours a day.

You have to be interested in news to be knowledgeable about it. Cable news is more junk than informative. The meaty content is mostly depressing when you think about it.

 

Whats even more amusing than the results of the poll (and im speaking about the low numbers on both sides) is how some of the consistent liberal posters (ahem-donny) try to find every reason to discount the poll AND still insult the conservatives.

Regardless of your personal political beliefs, both left and right voters are blindly sending people into office. This is what should be the shocker. I don't expect anyone to ace the quiz, but if you can't answer half of those questions right, you certainly do not deserve to be voting for anyone.

 

:high five:

 

Yeah, bring back literacy tests.

 

How am I insulting conservatives by pointing out the simple fact that conservatives care more about conservative issues? Liberals do the same thing. Did you not read my post? If that offends you, you need some seriously thicker skin.

And if you're shocked that people in this country by and large don't know jack***** about what is going on in the world, then I hate to tell you, but that is really old news.

 

Perhaps you're the one that needs to reread my post. I believe i said amusing, not offended. Out of the 10, only one has to do with a conservative issue. All the others has to do either with general knowledge or politics, not republicans or democrats.

 

I couldn't agree more.