January 23, 2006, More cognitive dissonance...
On this 33rd anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision, we'll start with the President, unsurprisingly, talking up his "pro-life" street creds to an anti-abortion group rallying at the nation's Capitol building (and rallying for the confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito to replace Sandra Day O'Connor as an associate justice on the Supreme Court.) Part of the "compassionate conservatism" message that the President campaigned on (twice) was a happy return to the days of back-alley abortions all across America, so, as a "truth in advertising" matter, it's really hard to fault him on this one.
Which, then, leads us to this truly bizarre "wtf" poll result showing overwhelming support (51% for and only 30% against) for the nomination of Samuel Alito by the public, with only 34% believing he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, despite the fact that he is on record as saying he would, or of course, as if Roe really matters all that much when judges (like Sam Alito himself) have shown us that abortion rights can die by a thousand cuts in other ways. The same poll shows that only 38% believe that a Democratic fillibuster would be justified (evidently, the same percentage of Democratic senators that believe that!) This is rather staggering: it reminds me of something Julia often reminds me of: at the time that former Democratic Speaker of the House Tom Foley of Washington State lost his seat (not his speakership, his seat in Congress) to Republican George Nethercutt, something like 80% of the people in that district believed that Nethercutt would automatically become Speaker of the House...
You try not to state the obvious, but the American people prove over and over again that they are just incredibly ill-informed; it's as if the whole "Harriet Miers might not vote to overturn Roe and thus we must dump her in favor of a true believer" events of last fall simply didn't happen.
I guess CSI Miami must have been on, or something... Here in George W. Bush's America, an uneducated electorate remains our best customer. Thus, when the President goes around the country talking up illegal surveillance ("cause, see, Al Qaeda is placin' phone calls to Amurka, see"... I guess he can call it his "listening tour") the fact is, most people will assume that the Government complied with all applicable laws. Because the President told us it did. (Or, he told us that they were stupid laws that he really didn't have to follow, anyway.)
Either way, look for the President's poll numbers to get off the shnide (is that how you spell it?) and head for the mid-40's by next weekend. Because an uneducated electorate is our best customer.