Well, the people they interviewed who called them on their factual errors don’t really make for an interesting show now do they? Three people. Big deal. Howard Stern is about entertainment, not facts.
How many people do you know who are voting for one candidate or the other simply because that candidate is democrat or republican with absolutely no regard or thought as to whether or not that’s the most qualified candidate. Ditto the people who will vote for whomever is ahead in the polls simply because they want to pick a winner.
No it’s not. Most people don’t have an in depth understanding of policy positions, they just vote for the person they believe will do a good job. They also vote for the person who they believe will be most capable of looking at the complex issues that they have neither the time nor the inclination and resolving them in a manner most favorable to them. It would not surprise me if you quoted McCain’s bailout plan and attributed it to Obama if more people liked it. They like Obama and trust his judgement over McCain’s. In other words if you hear a plan from someone you like it is not surprising if you view the plan more favorably.
You know, this is a great format. I think comedy shows should start doing this, where they ask basic trivia questions of people on the street so that everyone can yuk it up about how stupid those people are.
You don’t think that it is insane that people are voting for a person based on the way they “feel” about them rather than their policies? If you don’t find that insane, then you are an idiot.
This is funny and come on, let’s agree that there are a lot of people voting for Obama who have no idea what he means to do. Just because they happen to be on the right side does not excuse away their general ignorance. Although I am always interested to know what the footwork is to get respondents like this. In my personal interactions, I would say not much.
IMO, Stern has become much much more consistently entertaining on satellite, despite (because of?) the minor decrease in the wattage of the studio guests.
This was a distubing piece of footage I thought. Entertaining as well. It was not meant to be the be all-end all of political messages. I am sure the same could be found of McCain supporters. It’s one thing to not know a candidate’s beliefs. It’s another to blindly follow.
We all knew already that there are some people like that. Whether we should be worried about it or not depends on how many people are voting that way. If that’s 90% of all voters, yeah, that’s troublesome. If it’s 1%, then we’re doing pretty well. Unsurprisingly, Howard Stern doesn’t release his sample size or selection methodology, so we have no idea from this clip which number is correct.
Considering the number of people that were interviewed (4, I think), against 200 million other voters, give or take, I’d take these interviews with a hefty grain of salt. Hell, they could even have been selected, briefed, paid, who knows?
Jake
You made me curious so I looked this up on Youtube. In the one clip I saw, Mercer interviewed Mike Huckabee, George Bush, and Al Gore. Huckabee seemed to be in on the Ice Igloo joke, and Gore and Bush were both obviously not listening to him when they answered. But still, it makes me wonder if he really had to work all that hard to get “good” responses. I think it has more to do with people trusting a man in a suit with a camera and a microphone. Who wants to challenge whether Toronto is the capital in a situation like that?
I think ideally it’s both their policies and how we feel about them. If you don’t trust someone, it doesn’t matter what they claim their policies are. If you think someone’s an idiot, it doesn’t matter what policies they espouse. If you hate the company someone keeps, it doesn’t matter if they’re the smartest cookie in the jar.
For example: Let’s say that Obama and McCain were magically switched each to the other’s party. Obama is a Republican and McCain a Democrat. Nothing else is different about them, just their party affiliations.
How many Obama supporters would still vote Obama? How many McCain supporters would still vote McCain?
I know this is largely rhetorical, but I assume you mean that their platforms would switch with them, right? In which case, I, for one, would switch my vote in a second and vote for Obama.
How many people were interviewed to get this sample though?
I’m pretty sure if you interviewed enough people you’ll find someone who will say anything.
From a show I’m very fond of (CNNNN) http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=M8Jm-WFF5DE
Promised “policies” in political campaigns tend to go to the wayside post-election in a lot of cases. How do you think the libertaran-leaning Republicans feel about Bush now?
If you feel that one candidate is more knowledgable than you about the issues at hand and has your interests at heart, that’s a valid reason for voting for them.
Saying essentially “whoever doesn’t agree that ideas other than mine are insane is an idiot” isn’t the proper way to act in GD.
As far as the interviewees in concern here - they’re not that different from most idiots who are fiercely and stupidly attached to their party. To a whole lot of people, if you say “a senator said ____ today, do you agree?” they’d have to know whether the senator was a republican or democrat before they could decide. With our stupid us vs them mentality, blindly supporting your side and attacking theirs is more important than your actual logical evaluations of the facts.
That’s your loss. What compelled you to come into a thread just to state something so blisteringly uninteresting?
The factual inaccuracies in that article are mind-boggling. Stern has a larger audience than ever, gets paid more than ever, every single guest he has on hits #1 on Google trends, and he just made the front page of the LA Times for them to say his influence is dwindling :rolleyes: (kinda ironic, huh? Irrelevant people don’t make the front page.) There are more than a few ulterior motives to these reports.
For the record I didn’t hear this bit when it happpened but the guy with the mic (Sal) is constantly getting shit on the show for being a borderline racist. I have no doubt he went out that day with the intention of getting exactly what he got, and Howard played it because it was funny. It’s not supposed to be political commentary. Almost everyone who works on the show including Howard is voting for Obama.
I bet the could find the same thing on the McCain side. I know plenty of people who don’t know ANYTHING about EITHER candidate. Luckily, they don’t vote.
Totally what one would expect. And sorry, it wouldn’t be the same with McCain. Nice try. The whole Obama attitude is that everything is a wash. It isn’t. There’s more Kool Aid on the Obama side – plainly – than on Mac’s. Give me a break. LOL
does not excuse away their general ignorance. Although I am always interested to know what the footwork is to get respondents like this. In my personal interactions, I would say not much.