THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† MSM, Obama Campaign: Joe Don’t Know Jack: Believe it or not, there is polling data on Joe the Plumber’s favorability ratings. Scott Rasmussen isn’t kidding when he promises, “If it’s in the news, it’s in our polls.” Here’s what 1,000 likely voters said when the folks at Rasmussen Reports called them on October 17th:
Sixty-one percent (61%) of voters have been following news stories of Joe the Plumber somewhat or very closely. Among those following the news story, just 40% agree with Obama’s statement, and 47% disagree.
Forty-four percent (44%) of voters have a favorable opinion of Joe the Plumber, while another 41% have an unfavorable opinion and 15% are not sure. Among those following the story, the numbers for Joe are 58% favorable and 37% unfavorable.
As with just about everything touched by the presidential campaign, the responses divide sharply along partisan lines. Seventy-one percent (71%) of Republicans have a favorable opinion of Joe while 64% of Democrats express an unfavorable view.
The surprising star of the Presidential debate is a hit with middle income voters. Among those earning $40,000 a year to $100,000, 52% have a favorable opinion of Joe the Plumber while 33% offer an unfavorable assessment.
Those who earn less than $40,000 a year are less impressed - just 39% have a favorable opinion of him while 44% provide an unfavorable review.
Those with a higher income have an even lower opinion of Joe -35% favorable, 52% Unfavorable.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of entrepreneurs have a favorable opinion of the man who wants to someday buy his own business.
You know it’s just a matter of time before someone calculates Joe Wurzelbacher’s Q Score. BTW, he already has his own Wikipedia entry.
† The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II: In 2007 the 254 justifiable homicides committed by private citizens were the highest in a decade, according to FBI statistics. For private citizens, a homicide is considered justifiable when someone is killed while committing a burglary or other felony. National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre tells USA Today that there was a spike in the number of people taking his group’s gun safety courses after the September 11 terror attacks and the widespread looting and violence after Hurricane Katrina. “Americans are simply refusing to be victims.”
† We Fight Them Over There So We Don’t Have To Fight Them Over Here?: A St.Louis, MO, grand jury has indicted Bassam Hamed, 33, his two brothers and 11 others on federal racketeering charges for using five convenience stores to trade in stolen goods and contraband cigarettes, and funneling the proceeds - estimated at $250,000 to $1.5 million - to groups in the Palestinian territories. The indictment charges that since 2000 the “Hamed Organization” engaged in bank and wire fraud, racketeering and conspiracy to receive stolen goods.
† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth item, Garbage In, Garbage Out: Part II): More than 3,000 middle school students in Washington D.C. started getting checks last week under a controversial program to pay them for up to $100 every two weeks for getting good grades, showing up to class on time and comporting themselves properly, reports The Washington Post:
Capital Gains was created by Roland G. Fryer Jr., a Harvard University economist and researcher for the school's American Inequality Lab, which studies poverty and race. Fryer, who grew up poor in Daytona Beach, Fla., and dropped out of high school for a time to deal drugs, is searching for ways to close the academic achievement gap between minority and white students.
The middle school years are especially critical, Fryer and other researchers say, because it is the period when achievement often declines. Studies show that many high school dropouts actually finalize their decision to leave during middle school.
Half of the $2.7 million for the year-long pilot program comes from the District, and half comes from a grant to Harvard by the Broad Foundation.
Fryer has launched similar programs in Chicago and NYC in an attempt to boost standardized test scores of fourth- and seventh-graders.
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