Monday, March 17, 2008

Knowing Iraq

In a new report:
Public awareness of the number of American military fatalities in Iraq has declined sharply since last August. Today, just 28% of adults are able to say that approximately 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war. As of March 10, the Department of Defense had confirmed the deaths of 3,974 U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

The proportion of people who could correctly name the number of military fatalities in Iraq has been as high as 55% but has never been as low as it is now. Iraq has left the front page, it's left the top of the newscast. We have Obamillary, we have the economy. Hell, we have March Madness.

Republicans dropped from 53% to 26% correct. Democrats dropped from 49% to 30%. In an odd twist, the older you were, the greater the drop in knowledge about military deaths. No idea why. The same huge drop is seen among higher educated folks than those of less education, probably in part because the less educated had a lower number to begin with. Basement effect.

The good news is, 84% know that Oprah supports Obama. That's news you can use.

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