Poll Trolls

U.S. First lady Laura Bush said on Sunday she does not believe opinion polls showing her husband's approval ratings at record low levels.

Many recent polls have put Bush's job approval rating below 35 percent. One, the Harris poll, published last Friday, measured his approval at 29 percent, the first time any survey has put his support below the 30 percent mark. Two other polls published last week put his job approval at 31 percent.

"I don't really believe those polls...."

The most immediate question that comes to mind here is, who cares whether an oven-glazed Laura Bush believes the polls or not? How, exactly, is her opinion on poll data relevent to ... anything? Is there some expected rebound effect in polling when Laura Bush expounds like this? that suddenly people will stop and say, hey, Laura Bush doesn't believe the polls; hmmmm, could they be ... flawed? Could George Bush still actually be super popular but for the loathesome media, which continue to spread lies, even as they inform us of Laura Bush's worthless opinion as though it is significant?

I suspect that Mrs. Bush didn't have any problem believing "those polls" when her husband's approval was soaring at 90% right after 9/11. But now, damn them all to hell. This is simply more classic Bush trope that was concisely voiced in the now famous "I believe what I believe," I'm-my-own-man rhetoric, untarnished, as it has always been, by any reflection of reality.