CNN Poll Lacking

Headline: "Poll: More Americans blame Bush for 9/11"

According to CNN, 45 % of Americans now blame the Bush administration for 9/11. These results come as part of a poll that is really asking the wrong question. Unless one buys into the bologna conspiracy theories of 9/11, the question itself is completely leading in nature. The actual question reads:

"Overall, how much do you blame each of the following for the September 11th terrorist
attacks -- a great deal, a moderate amount, only a little, or not at all?"

Okay, that's a fair question. Then one would expect "the following" list of possibilities to include maybe Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, Saudi Arabia, or Florida.

But no.

The two possible answers: the Bush administration or the Clinton administration.

Clearly one of the two must be at fault!? What about the Bush 41 administration? What about Kennedy? Eisenhower? FDR?

Out of the possible answers, the most popular answer with reference to both the Bush administration and the Clinton administration was actually "Not at all" (the correct answer.) "Not at all" scored a respectable 35% for Bush and 36% for Clinton.

Also worth noting is that in the "complete results" that are posted here, the only two questions we are allowed to see are questions #21 and #27. A person's response to poll questions is often affected by the other questions that are being asked. If question #20 reads: "If President Bush had made a phone call to Mohammed Atta the day before the attacks, do you think that would constitute a government conspiracy?" then the next question is going to be a little harder to answer with any objectivity.

Come on, CNN, do you really think that nearly half of Americans blame our government?