How Can 1 Kerry Voter be so Dumb?

The post-election headline from the British tabloid, The Daily Mirror, has been widely reported. "How can 59,054,087 people be so dumb?" asked the Mirror. Personally, I'm not too concerned about what the Daily Mirror has to say about American Politics, just as I suspect Brits don't too get worked up about how the US press covers Tony Blair.

However, there is a man who takes this international critique very seriously. Op/Ed writer John Nichols from The Nation states that there is evidence that the 59 million voters are indeed dumb. His evidence? Apparently Bush voters didn't fully grasp Bush's lack of support overseas. According to a survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, only 31% of Bush supporters recognized that the majority of people in the world opposed the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq. In addition, 57% of Bush supporters assumed that the majority of people in the world would favor Bush's reelection.

This is big news to Mr. Nichols. Clearly, American voters made their choice of President before learning who the Indonesians preferred. And any self respecting Texan would change his vote if he knew that the French preferred Kerry, right? And I'm sure that at least 70,000 Ohio residents would have switched their vote if they knew Kerry was the candidate of choice in Iran. Nichols is so disconnected with mainstream America that he believes votes would have changed if Americans were more informed about international polling. Furthermore, the man is so "dumb" that he draws this conclusion: Bush voters were kept in the dark in regards to international opinion due in part to the pro-Bush coverage by the US Media! Apparently, CBS, NBC, and major US newspapers spent the past year putting a positive spin on the Bush Administration.

USANow is left to wonder: How is there any self-respecting journalist alive in America today who is not aware of the liberal bias in our mainstream media? How can a man call out CBS News as an organization biased in favor of the Bush administration? How can 1 Kerry voter be so dumb?