- cosign -

Until, there are actually two functioning National Parties, polls that provide breakdown by party will provide uninformative results. Let us know what the Progressive/Moderate/Conservative breakdown is, or the Obama/McCain/Other-or-Non voters breakdown is instead.

Uh. There are some of us who feel the two main political parties are just a hair too deep in the pockets of the corporate overlords, you know? Maybe not all, or even a majority (since "independents" can be little Ronnie Reaganistas and others can be, well... Ralph Nader or Bernie Sanders; I won't count Lieberman, since he's living proof of being deep in the pocket of corporate overlords).

Sadly, Teddy Roosevelt — who felt the exact same thing about the Democratic and Republican parties 97 years ago, when he was proposing things like taxing the rich to keep their greed in check, paying a "living wage" [he invented that phrase] and universal health care — was never able to make his Bull Moose Party [less well known as the Progressive Party] become a viable thing. Maybe it was just the whole idea of being called the BM Party?

Ah, history.

I am in near total agreement.

The only nit I pick is that I believe the "economic indicators" are deceiving, only because the underlying issues that caused the whole meltdown have not been touched. If anything, they have been reinforced through what I consider serious mis-steps by Obama. Foxes watching hen houses and all that, you know? (Geithner, Summers, and that whole pack.) Yes, reinforcing the Wall Street crooks has slowed the slide into oblivion, but they need to be put under some serious, serious controls (if not jail) which has not happened yet.

But that's off-topic from the main story. Yes, I agree that the Corporate Mass Media* still has a great deal of influence over mass opinion, and they are only emphasizing stories favorable to positions on the Right. One or... maybe 2 1/2... of their chatterboxes are doing actual reporting. I guess Rachel and Stewart and, occasionally, Maher and Olberman are their "tokens" maybe?

But, yes, yes, yes. I repeat myself from other comments on this thread — and apologize for that — but it's too important a point: Public opinion polls today are completely, 101% meaningless. August 2010 polls will be meaningful, but not today.

Those 08/2010 polls will be directly influenced by whether health care reform is put in place or not. And if jobs actually start to rebound, as opposed to their losses only slowing down. But maybe that last part is asking too much. I'll settle for health care reform right now; that other may follow as a result of the costs to our collective bosses falling as a result of that HC reform.

* Yes, I'm on a one person mission to quit giving the "MSM" so much credit. The are not "mainstream." They are corporate shills (with maybe the exception of 2 1/2 of their employees), all shaping reality to suit their employers' economic interests. They are Corporate Mass Media. Go ahead. Give it a try!