Hmmmm... Must be the left-wing's "new math". I didn't know that confidence percentages could drive negative.
Posted on 08/05/2002 8:21:11 AM PDT by Pokey78
It's just a coincidence, but former vice president Al Gore's attack on the honesty and integrity of the Bush White House comes at just the moment that a new poll shows Gore's credibility to be at a remarkably low level.
Referring to "a few bad apples in the White House," Gore wrote in an op-ed article in Sunday's New York Times that public confidence "in the honesty of our government" has declined under the Bush/Cheney administration. "If President Bush wants to pursue honesty and integrity in the White House," Gore wrote, "he should make public the names of the energy company lobbyists who met with Vice President Cheney to help draft energy and environmental legislation, and he should call for the release of the Securities and Exchange Commission files on the controversy surrounding his role in certain stock sales." (That is, apparently, a reference to Bush's 1990 sale of stock in Harken Energy Corporation, a transaction that was the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation that found no reason to take any action against Bush or any other person. See "The Facts About Bush and Harken", NRO, July 10, 2002.)
As it happened, Gore's Times op-ed was published the same day that the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press released a wide-ranging poll that measured, among other things, the former vice president's credibility. Mentioning a number of political figures, Pew researchers asked, "Please rate how much you think you can believe each person I name on a scale of four to one. On this four point scale, '4' means you can believe all or most of what the person says. '1' means you believe almost nothing of what they say."
Twenty-six percent of those questioned gave Gore a "1" rating, meaning they believe almost nothing of what he says. Thirty percent gave him a "2" rating, indicating little confidence in the former vice president's word. Twenty-eight percent gave him a "3" rating, and just 12 percent gave him a "4" rating, meaning they believe all or most of what he says.
In his Times article, Gore also praised his former boss, President Clinton. "I believe Bill Clinton and I were right," Gore wrote, "to maintain, during our 1992 campaign, that we should fight for 'the forgotten middle class' against the 'forces of greed.'" It turns out the Pew researchers also asked respondents about Clinton's believability. According to a Pew analysis, the poll found that, "among leading political figures tested, former president Bill Clinton stands out for his extraordinarily low credibility."
Forty-four percent of those surveyed gave Clinton a "1" rating, meaning they believe almost nothing of what he says. Another 22 percent gave him a "2" rating — meaning that a total of 66 percent of those surveyed had little confidence in anything the former president says. Nineteen percent gave him a "3" rating, while just 12 percent gave him a "4" rating, indicating they believe all or most of what Clinton says.
The Pew pollsters point out that Clinton's believability ratings today are well below what they were in May 1998, during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Then, Pew researchers found that a relatively small 23 percent of those polled said they believed almost nothing of what the then-president said (17 percent said they believed all or most of what Clinton said.)
In contrast, the new poll found relatively strong credibility ratings for George W. Bush. Thirty percent of those polled gave the president a "4" rating, indicating they believe all or most of what he says. Another 36 percent gave him a "3" rating, an indication of relatively solid credibility. Twenty percent gave him a "2" rating, and just 13 percent gave Bush a "1" rating, indicating they believe almost nothing of what he says. Taken together, the numbers are almost a mirror image of those for Gore and Clinton.
"A major correction is needed in the course of our nation," Gore wrote on Sunday. "Now is a time for truth and courage." Few people would disagree with the idea that the times call for truth and courage. They just don't believe Al Gore has the credibility to say it.
FMCDH
I address this subject both in my column this week, and in the booklet about to be published, both referred to below.
Congressman Billybob
Not only was it plainly obvious in terms of dishonesty, but in terms of skillful political squirrelyness, it also rates near zero.
Top-grade about red meat in the hands of a skilled campaign strategist -- making it highly likely it will never be mentioned by the GOP again.
We got 12-13% of the public who are hard-core Democrats. That makes me feel good.
This little stab at the Bush administration will disappear quickly as it's source; Al - 'No Controlling Legal Authority' - Gore is totally discredited by virtue of his own sorry record of lying and cheating throughout his tenure as Vice President in the corrupt Clinton administration.
The Democrats belief that the corporate scandals are a ticket to victory this Novermnber is badly misplaced. George W. Bush is no Clinton, with his endless lies and smarmy legalisms that displayed a deep and real contempt for truth - and the intelligence of the American people. The Bush and Cheney stock sales are not Whitewater, much as Gore and his fellow Democrats are attempting to make them so. They are simple stock sales, the Bush/Harkin sale investigated and combed for irregularities many times by former political oppenents. Nothing there.
If the Dems could dig up a 25-year-old, expunged DWI conviction on Bush in 2000, they would have certainly have dug up any incriminating evidence of illegalities or rule violations connected to his 1990 Harkin stock sale by now.
Gore is a sore loser who isn't believed, for good reason. He's a liar and was the other half of a totally corrupt administration for eight years. This is why Gore is being abandoned, albeit quietly, by his own party as a 2004 presidential candidate.
Al Gore is an object of derision for many and when he attempts to favorably compare the Clinton administration with the Bush administration and calls the Bush White House what his administration really was - liars and frauds who wrere totally and almost gleefully corrupt in every area - the laughter is deafening in some quarters. Most people just walk away from him, shaking their head in disbelief. After all, isn't Al the guy that invented the internet? The guy who left the room to pee after drinking too much iced tea and missed the important stuff? The guy who found 'No controlling legal authority'? Yeah, that's him. Now tell us again about honestly, integrity and ethics, Al. We all need a good laugh.
In a related poll, 12 percent believed in the tooth fairy; 12 percent believed in little green men from Mars; and 12 percent believed what they saw on the evening news. < /sarcasm >
The Clinton Legacy.
I picture Al Gore spending the rest of his days doing a slow burn over the fact that if he'd just stood up on his hind legs and publicly declared that it was time for Clinton to go, he would have been easily elected as an incumbent.
In other news, 12 percent of the population believes that Elvis is alive, that they or someone they know has been abducted by space aliens, and that flat-earthism should be given equal time in the public schools.
And 20% had been kidnapped by space aliens and held on a space ship for months. (100% of the kidnapped women were of course impregnated by the little green men.)
Algore must have a really, really massive disconnect with reality. For half of the most corrupt administration in the history of the U.S. to imply that corruption has increased under Bush indicates virtual insanity.
Hmmmm... Must be the left-wing's "new math". I didn't know that confidence percentages could drive negative.
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