Medved Minute 5/9

Every time Michael Medved interprets a poll, a statistician dies.

Last week, a Rasmussen survey asked "Did Bush know about the 9/11 attacks in advance?" Sixty-five percent of Democrats said "no" or they didn't know. Which seems like a reasonable response to a dopey question about what's going on in someone else's mind. 35% said "yes." Or, as Medved pretends to read it:

"... A STUNNING 61% OF DEMOCRATS BELIEVED THAT THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES MAY WELL HAVE COLLABORATED IN THE MURDER OF 3,000 OF HIS FELLOW CITIZENS."

Let's set aside whether or not 61% of anything can be stunning. (Report card day must be a frightening time around the Medved house.) That's not what the survey said. Medved gets that number by adding the "yeses" (35%) and the "no opinions" (26%) together. (Just like I added the "no opinions" to the "nos" to get 65%.) In other words, a made-up non-quasi-plurality of Democrats don't not not think that the president didn't see 9/11 coming.

Or, in Medved World:

"CONSPIRACY THEORISTS, PARANOIDS AND AMERICA-HATING EXTREMISTS HAVE TAKEN OVER ONE OF OUR MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES."

Three things:

1- 35% can't take over anything, unless Katherine Harris counts the votes.

2- The question on the poll is ambiguous. "Did Bush know about the 9/11 attacks in advance?" On August 6th, he was handed a report called "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US." Does that count as knowing? Only if we're sure he can read.

3- I'm not convinced George Bush knows about the 9/11 attacks today. He's pretty insulated.

4- Michael Medved smells like urine.

Okay, that's four things. But honest men can disagree about matters of opinion. Like math.