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Stupidest question on the latest CBS/NYT poll:**
23. Which comes closest to your view? 1. The U.S. needs to fix its health care system now as part of fixing the overall economy. Or 2. Because of the state of the economy, the U.S. cannot afford to fix its health care system right now.
Unless you want to be a heartless Republican (2) you have to buy not only the basic Orszagist argument the health care reform is the key to solving the deficit problem but the broader argument that it's the key to fixing the entire economy? What if you just think it's something we should do and that we can afford to pay for? ... No wonder respondents were so confused by the poll's barrage of nonsensical, tedious, and guilt inducing questions ("are [health care reforms] confusing to you?") that when the big question (#41) about whether they supported Obama's health plans finally arrived, CBS and the Times managed to produce an unprecedentedly huge number who said they "don't know enough"--47%--rendering the poll basically useless. Congratulations! ... The Paranoid View: For the Times, it was less risky to have a useless poll than one that actually measured where health care stands with voters. ....
Update: Several emailers point out that conservative and libertarian plans to "fix" health care also fall into the poll's vast excluded middle--at least if they aren't necessary for fixing the overal economy or don't have to be done now, but are nevertheless considered affordable. And if you don't think health care needs a "fix" at all--well, you're a total unperson as far as question 23 goes.
**--They've asked this question twice before, in July. Doesn't make it any less stupid. ... 2:34 A.M.
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Fish Out of Water Uncomfortable in Own Skin! Beck seems phony here, no?*** Something creepily inauthentic about him. ...
***--Except 2/3 of the way through, when he says he's never heard of kf. ... [Thanks to alert reader H.] 2:40 A.M.
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