If America was a dude on a roadtrip, would it ask for directions?

Looks like the answer is no. Because, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll, conducted August 23-25th, 2004, only 36% of Americans think that America is headed in the right direction. 50% think it is heading on the wrong track, 12% have a mixed opinion (shaken, not stirred), and 2% are not sure. (Margin of Error 3.5)

Ok then. This is all supported by a similar poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times a few days before, with roughly similar numbers.

So lets look at the question itself:

"All in all, do you think things in the nation are generally headed in the right direction, or do you feel that things are off on the wrong track?"

Is it just me, or does this question seem a tad vague? Asking if a country is heading in the right direction could mean alot of different things to alot of different people. Then again, it could mean the same thing to everyone, like the direction being towards a dark dystopian cyberpunk nightmere future.

A future known as East St. Louis.

First Ladies

All right guys, now, what you've all been waiting for!

No, not Freddie vs. Jason vs. KPop Sensation BoA.
That comes later, and probably only in my imagination.
Something which is not in my imagination, however, at least as far as I'm aware of, is the new Pew Poll comparing just how popular Mrs. Kerry and First lady Mrs. Bush are.

A Pew research center poll conducted August 5-10 gives us new numbers for just how well liked the two are at the time being.

Mrs. Bush came out with 35% very favorable, 35% mostly favorable, 11%mostly unfavorable, 8% very unfavorable, 2% never heard of, and 10% can't rate.

Mrs. Kerry had 15% very favorable, 28% mostly favorable, 17% mostly unfavorable, 13% very unfavorable, 8 % never heard of, and 19 % can't rate.(Can't rate? What does this mean? "I am unable to rate Mrs. Bush, as I have a rare terminal illness that prevents me from rating things. It also prevents me from using sarcasm".) Margin of Error ± 4.

Alot of people have said that Mrs. Kerry, a powerful woman with considerable financial holdings, is too similar to Hilary Clinton and that this turns men off to her (The same poll found that many more men like Laura Bush than like Teresa Kerry).

I don't know about that, but I do think that either candidate would do well to dump their signifigant others for Kpop sensation BoA, or at the least, Jason.

Bounce!

No, not the Ben Affleck movie (Though I'm a big fan of your work, you talentless hack!!!).

I'm talking about the bounce a recent Gallup poll notably did not give to Kerry following the Democratic National Convention. Its the norm for Presidential canidates to get a small bounce in the numbers following all the hoopla surrounding the convention.

But Kerry didn't get it. Even with Obama, who was way better than that annoying little girl with red hair they brought out the first night who reminded me of this kid I used to know back in 5th grade who was always getting stuff stuck in her braces and...there I go again.

So when something doesn't happen that everyone expects to happen, the pundits come out, leaving their dark basements and usenet forums, to steal the night and feed on the weak minded people.

People like Ben Affleck, poor guy.

They've said that voters are paying closer attention to the election, they've said the opposing party has been more aggressive, they've even suggested that the major TV networks coverage cutbacks might have had some effect, even though everyone knows that most Americans get all their news from The Daily Show.

These are all good hypotheses, perfectly fit for some Dartmouth undergrad's poli-sci paper. A paper that would probably not reference Ben Affleck.

In this case, however, I think they're looking a bit too far into things. In the Gallup poll Bush was leading Kerry 51% to 47%, which puts him outside of the Margin of Error of ± 3, but just barely. In other words, unlike several past presidential elections, the two are running very close. So close that any real bounce might be hard to detect anyway.

We'll see if Bush gets any more points from the New York convention later this month.