Sure it can. Not only that, about half of Americans think we are in an economic recession, that the elections of 2000 and 2004 were rigged by the Republican's, that the "savings rate" of Americans is a negative number (it does not include 410K or IRA), and that Social Security does not need fixing. You have the "Lame Stream Media" to thank for this.
You don't want to know how many believe that UFO's are from outer space, or that Elvis is not dead.
Spot on!
The MSM keep repeating the same mantra day after day after day; BUSH BAD, CONSERVATIVES BAD, LOSING IRAQ, ECONOMY TERRIBLE, etc, etc, etc and people start to believe it. Most of the sheeple don't take the time to do more than read the headlines or watch the boob tube 10PM news, and that is all they ever hear. It is a self fulfilling prophecy with Hitlery as the main beneficiary.
The anger displayed is also the result of the same phenomenon. If the MSM simply keep telling us day in and day out how bad things are, people's anxiety and anger increase until they are upset and angry without even knowing why. That is why the conspiracy theories look so good to so many. It is secretive and shadowy and gives them a justification for their inexplicable angst.
A good anecdote an an example. A woman that I know and like quite well and I were talking the other day. She is a good, intelligent person and was describing to me how she had the best job she ever had, making the most money she ever had and then added the disclaimer " Bush not withstanding,". I almost had coffee come flying out of my nose! I asked her to explain to me how she could say that after telling me that she was doing better than she ever had in her whole life (she is no spring chicken), and she could not. Her only explanation is that "everyone" says it's bad, and "all you have to do is look at the papers".
Folks, it is easy to blame the DUmmies for polls like these, or to blame the pollsters (not that they aren't complicit) but the reality is that these are the true sentiments of a lot of people, and they are only going to be reinforced by the MSM for the next several months, and then heavy for the two years following that as '08 approaches.