Here's a dire headline for Republicans from the New York Times:

In Ohio, Iraq Questions Shake Even Some of Bush's Faithful

Sounds like there'll be some bad news in there for the President, about him losing credibility among people who strongly supported him. Turns out though, that the only evidence the Times has of this is one, one, person who voted for President Bush who feels like there was no attempt to deceive, but who doesn't "like where this is coming down." The other people who say the news has affected them either did not vote for the President, or did not tell us who they voted for. As further "evidence" the article also points to a poll taken before the discussion of unreliable intellegence (not too sure about that characterization in any case), which is irrelevant to the headline unless compared to a poll taken after the discussion, and no such poll is included.

Not only is there a complete lack of evidence supporting the headline, there is, in fact, significant evidence that this discussion is NOT hurting the president. One voter said that she will not vote for Bush in 2004, but also said "There are always a lot of people involved in these things . . . . I don't blame him." The article also mentions the following:

In conversations here with nearly three dozen voters, the vast majority said they generally like President Bush and believe he is doing a good job. Many people said they remained convinced that Iraq posed a threat, even though no chemical or biological weapons have been found. And there was a broad consensus that the result of the war — the ousting of a brutal dictator — was good for Iraq as well as the United States.

It also reports that

Most people interviewed here said they did not pay much attention to either Mr. Bush's October appearance or State of the Union address.

and

To the chagrin of staunch Democrats here, the Washington debate about intelligence has received scant coverage in Cincinnati

I mean, for crying out loud, who wrote that Headline? It must have just been to grab attention, because, In Ohio, Iraq Questions Don't Much Matter, No Matter How Hard The Press Tries would have been more accurate.
- posted by Tom Sawyer @ 12:11 PM