The Invisible Hand

Americans Speak Up

A new Gallup survey shows that a large majority of Americans approve of President George Bush and his administration’s forceful approach to the Iraq theater of the War on Terrorism.

Indeed, all the most recognizable members of he Bush national security team are given high marks for their performance.

But perhaps most interesting finding of this poll is the very last question . . . the one regarding Gerhard Schroeder. He is very unpopular in the United States with only 16% of those surveyed saying that they have a favorable opinion of him and 22% saying that their opinion is unfavorable. Twenty-six percent said they had now opinion one way or the other.

But here’s the rub. Thirty-six percent said they’d never even heard of Schroeder. So that means that 10% of Americans have no idea who Schroeder is but still have an opinion about him.

Now that’s democracy.