Jon Stewart on Romney and Mormonism

[_EAllusion]

"Because of the controls for partisanship, we know these results are not just driven by Republicans or other groups being more likely to watch Fox News," Dan Cassino, a Fairleigh Dickinson professor who served as an analyst for the poll, said in the report. "Rather, the results show us that there is something about watching Fox News that leads people to do worse on these questions that those who don't watch any news at all."

I think that conclusion is a reach. I would first guess this fact has more to due with the biases of the people who self-select to watch Fox News rather than Fox News being the cause. Cassino doesn't seem to have controlled for that possibility. Time and time again political science research indicates that people answer questions like this in part based on what flatters their political preconceptions. Liberals did much better at answering correctly questions about WMD's in Iraq, but conservatives tend to more accurately answer questions about the scope of the national debt. What's happening is people are answering in accord with what best jives with their political associations rather than through genuine knowledge. That could be happening here. Maybe not, but I'd be curious to think why Cassino thinks the cause/effect relationship is what he claims.

[_NorthboundZax]

Your defense of this is akin to Republicans trying to defend the deplorable practice of calling Obama Barrack HUSSEIN Obama by pointing out that this technically is his middle name. They're clearly playing on people's fears and bigotry associated with that middle name even though he doesn't use the first, middle, last naming convention anymore than I do. "What?! What I'm saying is true!" does not excuse this behavior. And it doesn't absolve Schweitzer's game playing either.

I'm not sure the two are completely parallel. While Schweitzer's comment was clearly a dig, it at least has some relevance. The fact that Romney doesn't play up his connections to Mexico to boost his share of the hispanic vote does seem surprising at first blush. That W. could speak Spanish was played up in certain venues to reasonable gain. Romney probably doesn't go there at least partially, if not wholly, for the reason Schweitzer laid out. It has been tough enough for Romney to sell his vanilla brand Mormonism as just another Christian without highlighting personal connections to the kookier brand of Mormonism. So, while a flagrant dig, it does actually inform something about the race - unlike the 'Hussein' middle name thing.

[_krose]

Obama lies all the time.

Then you should have no problem identifying the most recent ones. Please list the specific lies told by Obama in 2012, using his public statements from the past four months. You should easily get a lot of them if it happens all the time.


By the way, "bear false witness" is not a synonym for "lie." It's more like perjury or bringing false charges.

[_Kishkumen]

Oh. So I guess rather than saying I didn't understand what Stewart was saying (which is how I interpret "didn't get it" and "sailed over your head"), you were saying you didn't agree with my assessment.

No, I was saying that you don't "get it." And it seems to me that others were making the same observation.

[_bcspace]

The standard leftist twit patrol. Its either Stewart or Maher, and no one takes them seriously who takes thinking seriously.

Which is doubtless why both of them seem to recur around here with such frequency.

Amen. This is proof positive why Democrats keep blacks down. It's because they need their reactionary vote. Only conservative values will lift them out of poverty. Some have already taken that road to success.

[_static]

I assume you will apply the same standard to any one of the dozen or so loose cannons that spew their nonsense daily on the Fox "News" Channel.

Fox News Channel is, currently, the dominant cable news outlet in the United States. Whether this is a commentary on the credibility of FNC or on the television viewers in the US is up to the individual to decide. I watch/listen to FNC, but I also watch/listen to CNN. I believe the credibility of these two networks far exceeds that of MSNBC.

There are "loose cannons" on every news outlet. I have a mind, krose. It is up to me to use my mind to think about what the media is telling me and weigh its truth based upon available evidence and to filter it through my personal belief system.

Everyone has a bias. That doesn't mean you get to say whatever idiotic thing you want to say on the air and not be criticized for it.

And yes, Obama has lied as much as any other politician.

http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/fashion-shows/

(I do not endorse or even know much about the above site, however it does conveniently list some political lies made by the president).

[_Droopy]

Time and time again political science research indicates that people answer questions like this in part based on what flatters their political preconceptions. Liberals did much better at answering correctly questions about WMD's in Iraq, but conservatives tend to more accurately answer questions about the scope of the national debt.

So then, I am to assume that most leftists are well acquainted with the settled facts of the case, which is that there was WMD throughout Iraq up until, in some cases, days before U.S. troops entered specific territories? I assume they are up to speed regarding the David Kay, Iraq Survey Group, and Robb-Silberman reports, all of which were unanimous regarding Saddam's dismantling and dispersal of his WMD programs throughout Iraq with the intention of reconstructing and reconstituting them once the Oil for Food program was completed and international pressure had dwindled?

The claim that "there was no WMD in Iraq" is simply a lie, purely and simply, and has long been known to be a falsehood.

Never, however, let a politically useful falsehood go to waste.

[_Droopy]

Then you should have no problem identifying the most recent ones. Please list the specific lies told by Obama in 2012, using his public statements from the past four months. You should easily get a lot of them if it happens all the time.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/03/26/obam ... ies/print/

Here's a nice little intro to the subject at hand.

[_Kishkumen]

The claim that "there was no WMD in Iraq" is simply a lie, purely and simply, and has long been known to be a falsehood.

Never, however, let a politically useful falsehood go to waste.

[_Droopy]

The claim that "there was no WMD in Iraq" is simply a lie, purely and simply, and has long been known to be a falsehood.

Never, however, let a politically useful falsehood go to waste.

Uh...Kish, I'm not the one running around claiming Will is the illegitimate son of Hugh Nibley.

Secondly, what I've said above is settled history, and easily documented. I only use tinfoil for cooking purposes, and, not being a man of the Left, when I leave tin foil, I also leave it alone.