Willful ignorance

A new CBS News poll has some potentially very bad news for George W. Bush. The problem is that George W. Bush has some very bad news for the rest of us over the next three years. But the stonewalling of Scooter Libby and Karl Rove and Judith Miller served its purpose -- to ensure re-election of C-Plus Caligula, so we can all enjoy his relentless march to the peculiar amalgamation of Stalinist totalitarianism and Christian Taliban theocracy that is the wet dream of the right. Americans have a serious case of buyer's remorse -- at least those Americans who bother to find out what's going on in their own country.

The astounding recurrent theme in these poll results is just how ignorant Americans are about important matters having to do with their own government. 25% still don't know that someone in the Bush Administration leaked Valerie Plame's name. 54% haven't heard enough to know if the charges against Scooter Libby are true. 51% don't know if Rove's actions in the CIA matter were wrong, unethical, illegal, or any combination of the above.

And yet, 61% say Libby should be prosecuted; and 36% say Rove should be prosecuted, with sizable numbers still in that "don't know column." And 51% say that the CIA leak is a matter of great importance. (Just by way of context, 41% think the Clinton/Lewinsky matter was of great importance and only 20% think Whitewater was a matter of great importance.)

64% think the Administration was either hiding aspects of the weapons situation in Iraq or outright lying, and yet 66% think Bush himself is as honest or more honest than most people in public life. This reflects the NEED people have to believe in this guy. The one thing that might protect him is that the idea of waking up and seeing what this guy is, and what the people around him are, is so depressing that a majority of Americans just can't face it.

And yet, as another inconsistency in this poll, this stubborn adherence to the "Bush is honest" meme doesn't save him -- his overall favorable rating is at 33%, and Cheney's are at a miserable by any measure 19%.

I know that readers of this blog don't fall into that "don't know" category, but how on earth can we get the people who are more concerned about who's going to be the next top model to realize that their kids' futures are at stake?