Poll results (and new poll!)The last poll asked, “If there is another major terrorist attack on the U.S. before the 2004 elections, will that make you more or less likely to vote for George W. Bush?”. 51 people responded to the poll, and the results were surprising (to me, anyway).
33% (17 votes) said that they would be more likely to vote for George W. Bush if there is another major terrorist attack on the U.S. before the 2004 elections. This is only slightly less than the 37% (19 votes) who said they would be less likely. 12 people (including me) said it would not affect their likelihood of voting for Dubya, and 3 people said “other”, but didn’t e-mail me to explain.
When I posted the poll, I expected to find that those who (like me) already had strong feelings about Bush one way or the other would vote “neither” (like me). I also assumed that Rick’s readership would tend to have strong feelings one way or the other. However, over 75% of respondents said that a major terrorist attack would affect their voting decision in some way.
Now that I see the results, I have a new theory. Those who support Bush (and visit this site) tend to do so with an almost fanatical zeal that tends to focus on Bush’s “leadership” and “clear vision”. Those people are likely to react to the suggestion of a second attack by asserting that it only heightens the need for a strong leader like Bush, who isn’t afraid to do what is necessary to get the job done. Conversely, those who oppose Bush (and visit this site) have a similar (but less fanatical) tendency to view everything he does in a negative light. Thus, those people are likely to see a second attack as further evidence of the failure of Bush’s post-9/11 policies.
I’m also quite curious as to the breakdown of the 24% who said “neither”. Are they mostly anti-Bush, pro-Bush, or neutral? Is it “neither” because of already strong feelings (like me), or because the respondent(s) believe that a second attack would (should?) not be relevant to the decision of who should be the next president?
If you responded to the poll (or even if you didn’t), I’d love to hear your reactions to the results, and/or the reasons why you voted (or would have voted) as you did. I’ll leave the poll up for a while so that people can view the results and/or vote.
AND DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE NEW POLL!!!!
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