Posted on 01/18/2011 7:20:27 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The perfect capper to a day that began with a story in the Times insisting that it wasn’t really “the media” that built this phony narrative, it was disgraceful moron Clarence “Supercop” Dupnik. Which is true, to some extent: Having the lead state investigator in the case mumbling about Rush Limbaugh every five minutes was bound to confuse casual news viewers into thinking there was some evidence in his possession suggesting Loughner had a right-wing agenda. But of course, it’s precisely because of his willingness to mumble along those lines that Dupnik became an overnight media darling, with Diane Sawyer corralling him for interviews and Olbermann setting him up for segments on “Countdown.”
The result: Fully 35 percent of the public now believes that Palin’s months-old, otherwise extremely obscure midterm map with the crosshairs on it is not only linked to this case but that it actually bears some culpability for Loughner’s mania. So egregiously unfair is that result that even the solidly left-wing Salon writes of it, “that number should be 0 percent.” The partisan breakdown:
Fully 56 percent of Democrats think the map is at least somewhat to blame, and even 12 percent of conservatives think it bears a “great deal” of responsibility. Tea partiers aren’t immune from the disinformation either:
That’s the core of her base, and even 16 percent of these people think there’s some sort of culpability. Not surprisingly, the less education you have, the more likely you are to be misinformed:
ABC has a new poll of its own out tonight showing that 78 percent approve of Obama’s handling of the aftermath of the shooting compared to just 30 percent approval for Palin (versus 46 percent who disapprove). But look back at the CNN numbers above: Between the heavy breathing over her use of the term “blood libel” and the mind-boggling extent to which people have been misled about her role — or rather, non-role — in all of this, how could her approval numbers be otherwise? Thirty-five percent of the public must have watched her speech last Thursday morning and thought, “I can’t believe this woman who just inspired a mass murder thinks people should feel bad for her.”
The most interesting numbers to me of all of these are the ones among conservatives and Republicans who think she bears some sort of blame. Partly that’s because you would think their misimpression would have been corrected by now by their exposure to conservative media — either Fox or talk radio or blogs, etc. But that assumes that all of this is being driven by innocently mistaken impressions, which surely isn’t the case. Some of it, I suspect, is coming from centrist conservatives who loathe Palin and want to see her influence reduced before 2012 at all costs, and if that means kinda sorta blessing an Orwellian narrative about her alleged culpability in all this, well, hey — it’s for a greater good. She may not technically have influenced Loughner in reality, but she shouldn’t have used that crosshairs metaphor so holding her partly responsible is, shall we say, “rough justice.” I can’t prove that’s what’s happening, but then proof is no longer required before making charges, is it? The hard fact to take away from all this if you’re a Palin fan is that Scarborough’s probably right: She has been damaged by this, however unfairly, and it’s going to make it that much harder for her to win back independents and centrists if she runs next year. That’s what happens when 35 percent of the public is as politically aware as Joan Rivers.
Ridiculous...
Who cares? I don’t like higher and higher food and gas prices.
Lets talk about that and start asking Barack what he is going to do about it.
They’re not “cross hairs” they’re Surveyor’s Symbols.
This whole thing is RIDICULOUS!This”net-case”has had an animous towards Giffords as far back as 2007!No one had heard of Sarah back then!!As far as putting”Cross-Hairs”on political districts,that’s been going on for years!!!This whole thing against Sarah is being driven by The DemonRats and their willing accomplices in The MSM!!!!
Obummer has 90% black and 70% Latino in his pocket . How many more does he need?
Did any of the nitwits among the 35 percent explain how a map published in 2010 influenced him to begin stalking someone in 2007???
Was it a rent in the time-space continuum?
Deomocrats are Crooks or Morons or they would not be Democrats
and they eat puppies and kittens raw!
I never mentioned crosshairs. I said who cares what dems think?
Lets get back to offense and quit worrying about it.
Given the intense hate for Palin in democrat and media circles, I’m actually surprised that 35% number isn’t higher.
But it does show a large percentage of people in this country are hopelessly and irretrievably ineducable. Looking at an issue with new eyes is beyond their mental capabilities.
This subject has been beat to death. Time to move on to important issues and Congress getting back to work. As Sarah said, this are all diversion tactics. The truth is out there for those who want to see it.
If 35% of the sheeple are stupid enough to buy Media lies and bs, then so be it. The remaining 65% are the best hope for America.
Let’s move on and keep helping Sarah and other Patriots in their quest to restore America!
Just replace DemonRats with Communists and it more factual.
And CNN wonders why FOX is whipping their butts in the ratings...
By the official count Jared fired only 20 rounds but 21 hits were discovered. I take it that Pawlenty and Scarborough are therefor involved in some way ~ as, of course, are the members of the Democrat National Committee.
The politically ignorant and the politically stupid are the reasons why all of worldwide political correctness is very healthy today. How can this be, successfully, reversed, if it even ever can be reversed, at all?
We put more points on the board in November by going on the offense.
The dems love our fixation on defense. Lest chip into Barry’s so called higher poll numbers and send him back to the bottom.
I want him to have to start answering for the sorry state of the country.
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