I think it goes to show the power of how you phrase the question. If you ask a poll question which says "would you want to starve a person to death", anyone who says "yes" should probably be incarcerated. Likewise, if you ask a poll question "do you want Congress deciding whether you personally get to live or die", anyone who says "yes" should have their temperature checked. This is good news for Republicans - it means people reject the idea of Federal government intervention in their lives!

This poll could arguably be made to look like it stands in contradiction to the polls showing public disapproval of Congressional action. I don't agree; there isn't necessarily a discrepancy here. The widely-reported polls that show people opposed to Congressional intervention don't necessarily indicate that those same people approve of Florida's statute, or that they approve of the removal of nutrition from Terri. Michael Schaivo should not assume that just because people don't want Congress to involve themselves in the manner in which they did that those people approve of his actions. For sure, Barney Franks would like us to think so, and the Dem propaganda machine will no doubt do everything they can to make it seem that way - but I think it's possible to be a pro-life Republican, to think that what happened to Terri Schaivo was wrong, but still to regard Congress' action as unconstitutional and unwise.

whoops - i think you need to rewrite that last paragraph bro. you have the two cultures swapped.

Mark...

I think you have the words Death and Life in the first sentence of the last paragraph switched.

Mark, I suggested in my blog on this topic that there was something more sinister than simple push polling for bias....

CBS is already in production with a made-for-TV movie on Terri Schiavo and plans to air it during sweeps week NEXT MONTH!

Think they would've been able to do this if Terri had still been alive? They had a motive to see her dead.

Just shows that those earlier polls were crap. we all knew it. I'm sure this poll wont get very much attention. Why the hell a poll like this this didnt come out sooner when the florida legislature was looking at the case i dont know.

CBS is already in production with a made-for-TV movie on Terri Schiavo and plans to air it during sweeps week NEXT MONTH!

Oh gosh... It can only be terrible. And all the more so for how close the the event it will be written, before dispassionate writing is even possible. I'm just thankful that thusfar the networks have refrained from making bad television from 9/11 - but it's only a matter of time.

Thanks guys - all fixed now.

I've been incensed by the media non-coverage of this affair. (I can't outraged---wild-eyed outrage is saved for the Left.)

The media have consistently misstated facts to guide opinion in a specific direction.

When the media have talked about the mulitude of court rulings on the case, they've never bothered to mention that after the first ruling, all others were on judicial procedure only, not on the evidence. But the implication has been that all these courts reveiewed the same evidence and came to the same conclusions. The Pro-Death Talking Heads on the news shows know this, but still present the court rulings in a way to indicate that the rulings were a reveiw of the evidence. When they've been called on it by a sharp opponent, they've looked a little sheephish and changed the subject.

The media have also referred to a "peristent vegetative state" as if that were not a strenuously challenged diagnosis. Ellen Goodman referred to dissenting opinions as "one discredited neurosurgeon". Who knows where she got that---from the same magic box she gets a lot of her insights, I guess.

Also, I understood the pleas to be for a definite diagnosis to show whether or not Terri was really in a PVS, not just an effort to keep her alive indefinitely.

The media have totally misrepresented Congress' ruling, and in general have been such advocates of the starvation of this woman that it is indefensible.

(Zogby)>>while at other times we can only explain the discrepancy between poll and event as being the result of Zogby's wishful thinking vis a vis the outcome of various contests

Zogby was right on until this election. Y'all know he's pro-Arab?..In the last election he sided with Arab Americans who strongly opposed the Iraq War. His polling on this election eve was way off compared to his Bush/Gore poll that showed Gore ahead by one percentage point.

Another point worth mentioning, is that Arab Americans usually vote Republican because on "moral issues" they're alligned with Religious conservatives...divorce, abortion, gay marriage..just about everything. However, on the War in Iraq, I watched an ArabPAC squirm because they had no choice but to vote for Kerry to show their objection to Bush's invasion of Iraq and the "crusade" to democratize the Middle East.

Zogby's sentiments are with them..he weighted his poll with too many Arab Americans who registered Republican and anti-War Democrats.

His brother James who polls in the Middle East, still refuses to admit that Bush's aggressive foreign policy is instigating democrative movements throughout the Middle East.

Neither Zogby brothers can be trusted when it comes to R-vision quest or Homeland Security vis a vis the Patriot Act which treats all Arabs as suspects..in their opinion.

Kay Ryan