Bush Supporters in denial?

[Kipruss]

An interesting survey taken by a group associated with the University of Maryland. The gist of the report is that people who will vote for Bush believe in things that are not true, or have not been proven.

The director of the organisation put it this way:

"The roots of the Bush supporters' resistance to information," according to Steven Kull, "very likely lie in the traumatic experience of 9/11 and equally in the near pitch-perfect leadership that President Bush showed in its immediate wake. This appears to have created a powerful bond between Bush and his supporters--and an idealized image of the President that makes it difficult for his supporters to imagine that he could have made incorrect judgments before the war, that world public opinion could be critical of his policies or that the President could hold foreign policy positions that are at odds with his supporters."

http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pr..._10_21_04.html

I am not stating that the Bush supporters on this message board are as mistaken as the general public because at least they hear different viewpoints (even if they don't agree with them).

edit...

Here's another site which gives the positions of Bush and Kerry and the percentage of their own supporters who know the positions (using statistics from the same survey).

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/arc..._10/004974.php

[Fonnicker]

Very revealing piece. Being a Kerry supporter, I am inclined to believe what it says. It supports my gut inctincts, however...

Before I completely buy into it, has anyone found evidence that his is a partisan agenda? Anything out there that refutes it? Because, if this is true an non-partisan it really says a lot.

[tarek]

"Since shortly after the Iraq war PIPA has regularly asked Americans about their perceptions as to whether before the war Iraq had WMD and whether it provided substantial support to al Qaeda. To a striking extent, majorities have believed that Iraq did have WMD or at least a major program for developing them, and that Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda. With the reports of David Kay, the 9/11 Commission, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and most recently Charles Duelfer all refuting these
beliefs, they have only modestly diminished, and are still held by approximately half of the public."

Doesn't this suggest that to Bush supporters, the threat of terrorists and their potential to unleash WMD is a primary concern?

WMD have not been discovered in Iraq - but does this mean that WMD did not exist in Iraq? Just because we cannot prove or disprove the existence of God, does it mean that he does or does not exist Or that only that we have proved or disproved such a a thing.

Are Bush supporters resistant to information or are they resistant to the conclusions Kerry supporters insist the finds merit?? I would suggest that these "findings" can be read in a number of ways and the sugestion that Bush supporters are resistant to information or "believe" in untenable propositions, is a reflection of the spin some are persuaded by.

We will know soon enuff, whether the security argument has cut mustard with the electorate or not.