… Really, really stupid?
Something else from that Pew Research Center study on where people get campaign news: The utter cluelessness of most survey respondents on basic factual questions about candidates and issues. The survey found:
“…Most Americans are not familiar with the ins and outs of the campaign” and “public awareness of facts about the candidates’ backgrounds also is relatively low.”
“Relatively low” is a charitable description. The survey asked two questions about Democriatic candidates’ backgrounds: Which one is a former general? Which one used to be House majority leader? The survey reports that 31 percent of respondents knew the answer to the first question (clue: not Tippecanoe, or Ulysses S. Grant, neither), and 26 percent answered question two correctly (a guy from Missouri, but not Harry Truman).
On the other hand, the survey found that older people and those who say they regularly get news from the Net, from NPR, or newsmagazines seem to be more on the ball. A full third of that group answered both questions correctly.
New spin on the 2000 election: We elected a true man of the people. Pass the pretzels.