Large Swaths of the American Public Are Ignoramuses

Liberal blogosphere has already jump all over the fact that 39% of the American public believe the government should stay out of the beloved government agency Medicare. My concern is that only 90% believe the fiftieth state admitted to the Union believes Hawaii is part of the United States.

6% of the respondents deny that Hawaii is part of the United States, while another 4% taking the Hamlet route and are unsure of the state's being... well a state. 4% and 6% seem like far too small of numbers to be concerned about, but 10% either denying or unsure about 1.2 Million U.S. citizens status as citizens is disconcerting. 10% of Americans is 30 Million people, not a population you could really ignore. 39% being ignorant of the fact that Medicare should also bring shame to our national pride (especially since those 39% respondents are likely the ones that are quick to claim we are smartest, richest, best in everything country in the world), but confusing a government agency with private insurance is a little more understandable since Medicare pays private service providers and it is the private service providers are in direct contact with the public while Medicare exists several degrees of separation away from the end user. 30 million Americans not knowing enough about their own country shocks me.

With this response I would have like to seen the same poll have asked whether Alaska is part of America? The Hawaii question was the first of a string of questions leading to ferret out how many 'birthers' really are out there, and where do the 'birthers' believe President Obama was born. My question far any of these 30 million or any 'birther' conspiracy theorists, do they believe that Panama is part of the U.S.? Why would I ask that non-sequitur question? Well because that is where 2008 GOP nominee for president John McCain was born. Panama being one of the rare examples of former U.S. territory being handed back.

If birthers can't believe Hawaii is a state, or that the state's department of health issued a certificate of live birth for Barack Hussein Obama, or that 2 newspapers in Hawaii independently issued birth notices contemporary to the president's birth; how would they contain the possibility that John McCain was constitutionally eligible for the office of the president but not Barack Obama who was born in a state that is still part of the U.S.?

McCain unsure how many houses he owns - Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen - Politico.com

McCain unsure how many houses he owns - Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen - Politico.com

McCain is so wealthy (more accurately his wife is so wealthy) that he doesn't know how many houses he owns. This story seems to really have gotten a foot hold amongst the political press. Obama certainly has taken advantage of it producing an ad with the politico.com interview already.

What I think about when I hear this story is Kerry flubbing this exact issue in 2004, he brought up Bush's tax returns and stated how much money Bush got refunded for owning a lumber company that made capital purchases. Kerry should have jump all over Bush's joke ("got wood?") by replying "I know where most of money comes from, and so does everyone in the room, because there is a bottle of ketchup on everyone's kitchen table. This guy is so wealthy and so out of touch that he doesn't have the faintest clue where his money comes from."

I know fighting the last battles is not productive, but indulge in my cathartic rant. Kerry should have used humor in that instant, it could have won him the election. It would have cast Kerry in a new light and would have shown Baby Bush as exactly what he is, which is a silver-spooned brat.

Nevada Polls

Electoral-Vote.com has listed some public polls that shows Saturday's Nevada Caucus much closer 3-way race than I would have imagined. Given that the Casino workers union endorsed Barack Obama, and the second most powerful union in the state the teachers union endorsed Hillary; it is a little surprising that Edwards is within the margin of error of winning the state in the Research 2000 poll and Edwards is plausible to win in reality if we take the pollsters' track record (ie NH polls) into account. Obviously we will have to see what happens this Saturday.Just a point of order about political reporting premature electoral obituaries: Chris Mathews the weekend before NH's primary asked 12 of his regular contributing pundits and unanimously agreed that Barack had the nomination in his back pocket.

There should be serious discussion within the fourth estate that
we will see a brokered national convention. As long as Edwards gets 15% in most states and Clinton and Obama continue to fight it out splitting up most of the Feb 5th state the delegate count will never reach a majority.

Brokered Convention

We could see the first televised brokered convention one maybe even both national parties this summer. With the GOP so scatter-shot four or even five candidates that are plausible to be nominees (plausible= Giuliani; Huckabee; Romney; McCain, and much less plausible Thompson). On the Democratic side Obama and Hillary are unlikely more than 45% of the delegates except in their respective home states. A brokered convention is probably what Edwards is banking on, because when Denver rolls around and head-to-head match ups are the only thing the political press can write about Edwards will certainly look better than Hillary, and Hillary will probably start slinging mud at Obama to take the shine off him. Saving grace for Hillary and Obama are that some states have winner-take-all primaries, I couldn't find a list of them on the net , but thenattering-nay-bobs of negativity (aka the media) will get around to talking about it by Febuary 5th.