In a recent interview with The Nation, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev recalled a brief conversation with then-VP Poppy Bush, proving nothing ever changes in the world of wingnut conservatism: they are still the same blockheads and dummies today they were then — there are just fewer of them:
“By the way, in 1987, after my first visit to the United States, Vice President Bush accompanied me to the airport, and told me: ‘Reagan is a conservative. An extreme conservative. All the blockheads and dummies are for him, and when he says that something is necessary, they trust him. But if some Democrat had proposed what Reagan did, with you, they might not have trusted him.'”
— Excerpted from “Gorbachev on 1989,” Katrina Vanden Heuvel & Stephen F. Cohen, The Nation, Oct. 28, 2009.
Mikhail Gorbachev should go down in history as the hero of this era. Unfortunately I think Cons will get their way: Ronnie brought the USSR down. Hell, W’s Pa at least contributed by dealing with them more than Ronnie ever did. But, in reality, when Rush was saying, “He’ll never tear down that wall,” Gorby did. When Rush said, “He’ll never allow elections,” he did. When Rush said that Gorby would never step down, he did. Instead they had to have an alcoholic putz run the country into the ground until we got back a leader who had been KGB and longed for “the good old days.”
Just how long is anyone in America going to listen to those who are always wrong?
Many may be listening just to ridicule him. Several people I know who drive for a living listen to Rushbo — but they laugh at him. If they were asked: “Do you listen to Rush Limbaugh regularly?” they’d answer “Yes.” But if they were asked if they BELIEVED Rush’s BS, they say, “Who could believe that crazy goof?”
Another example would be a friend’s grandmother who was polled by telephone in July of 2008. The pollster asked if she was a registered voter and then asked, “if the election were held today, would you vote for John McCain or Barack Obama?” She didn’t know anything about Obama at that point, so she answered McCain, since she had heard of him. She was about to tell the pollster she was willing to give Obama a chance to win her vote, but he quickly thanked her and hung up. She voted for Obama in November, so whatever temporary stat resulted from this poll was worthless.
This is the problem with polling in general — good follow-up questions are often more important than the initial survey question and people’s opinions are often more complex than one simple answer can elicit.
intresting quote. i dont know if i trust bush’s father any more then the son, but it is a good quote if its true.