It's not necessarily what the poll is indicating, as every poll is biased as can be, but it's what's implied in the poll that's frightening. Off of the AP wire, as published in The Advocate's online edition:
So, 48% think that this country is headed in the right direction and 44% don't. Subtract 3.1% (the sampling margin of error) from the high figure or add it to the low figure and what you see are two numbers which are virtually identical. Which means that the country is split down the middle. The AP doesn't bother to say that instead, hammering on the high figure.
More troubling than that is the missing 8 - 11% who obviously don't care, don't know or don't care to know. So basically, one out of ten our your fellow citizens could care less. That's great. I think that's a more important number than the figure behind the "is your country headed in the right direction?" question.
So, who are these people who don't care? Are their numbers growing or shrinking? And, God help us, do they vote?
