Obama Voters, CNN and Network TV Viewers More Poorly Informed

John Ziegler is to be commended for his post-election polling work. At first we learned how ridiculously ill-informed Obama voters were, leading us to some conclusions about how Obama got elected.

Ziegler took upon himself a challenge that the misguided critics on the Left – who (all too predictably) attacked the questioners rather than deal with the substance of the findings – would not do. He commissioned a second poll with even more telling results (H/T Granite Grok):

Here are just some of the “highlights” of the Wilson Research Strategies poll of 1,000 voters whose demographic breakdown was an exact replica of the total voting population and whose results totally vindicate the controversial Zogby poll:

* 35 % of McCain voters got 10 or more of 13 multiple choice questions correct.
* 18% of Obama voters got 10 or more of 13 questions correct.
* McCain voters knew which party controls congress by a 63-27 margin.
Obama voters got the “congressional control” question wrong by 43-41.
* Those that got “congressional control” correct voted 56-43 for McCain.
* Those that got “congressional control” wrong voted 65-35 for Obama.
* Those “exposed” to FOX News got “congressional control” correct 64-25 (+39)
* Those ‘exposed” to CNN got “Congressional control” correct 48-38 (+10)
* Those “exposed” to network news got “Congressional control” correct 48-39 (+9)
* Those “exposed” to print media got “Congressional control” correct 52-37 (+15)
* Those “exposed” to MSNBC got “Congressional control” correct 55-35 (+20)
* Those “exposed” to talk radio got “Congressional control” correct 61-29 (+32)
* Voters in the South had the best response rate on “Congressional control” (+22)
* Voters in the Northeast had the worst response rate on “Congressional control” (+9)
* Those “exposed” to FOX News voted 70-29 for McCain.
* Those “exposed” to CNN voted 63-37 for Obama.
* Those “exposed” to MSNBC voted 73-26 for Obama.
* Those “exposed” to network newscasts voted 62-37 for Obama.
* Those “exposed” to national newspapers voted 64-36 for Obama
* Those “exposed” to talk radio voted 61-38 for McCain.
* Those that could associate Bill Ayers’ name/story with Obama voted 52-48 for McCain.
* Those that knew Obama had made negative comments about “coal power plants” voted 76-24 for McCain.
* Those that knew Obama had his opponents knocked off the ballot in his first campaign voted 66-34 for McCain.
* McCain voters did poorly (only 42% correct) on the Keating question and, in general, the voters did universally worse on questions where the negative information was about their candidate.
* Women under 55 did worse than they might have by guessing on four of the thirteen questions yet 95% of them knew that Palin was the candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter. — Even 95% of those in this demographic group who didn’t know “Congressional control” got this question correct.
* Those “exposed” to MSNBC scored 90% correct on the three Palin questions (including an incredible 98% on the pregnant teenage daughter question), while those not exposed to MSNBC averaged 84% correct on those three questions.

Are many of these results terribly surprising? No. This isn’t to say that an information deficit was the primary cause of John McCain’s defeat, but it’s hard to deny as a real factor. All the more reason for Republicans to champion real education reform, and to hope that Barack Obama himself is up to the challenge.