DougR:

It has little to do with respecting a point of view. The only thing I don't respect is your getting the facts so blatantly wrong. Like "Paula Jones settled out of court" and "Clinton was convicted of perjury." As I showed above, both are untrue.

Perhaps not coincidentally, PIPA, a public affairs program at the University of Maryland, has just released a study confirming that President Bush's supporters tend to suppress or deny information that would tend to make their candidate look bad. So, even after the Duelfer report, most Bush supporters believe Iraq has WMD, that the Duelfer report showed that, that Iraq was giving significant support to Al-Qaeda, and that the 9/11 commission report showed that. They believe that most people in the world want Bush to be re-elected and that most people in the world support the invasion of iraq.

As Salon puts it:

Analyzing data from a series of nationwide polls, the report finds that a majority of Bush supporters believe things about the world that are objectively untrue, while the majority of Kerry supporters dwell in the reality-based community. For example, Bush backers largely think that the president and his policies are popular internationally. Seventy-five percent believe that Iraq was providing "substantial" aid to al-Qaida, and 63 percent say clear evidence of this has been found. That, of course, would be news even to Donald Rumsfeld, who earlier this month told the Council on Foreign Relations, "To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two."

Though its language is dispassionate, the report lays responsibility for this epidemic of ignorance at the White House's door. "So why are Bush supporters clinging so tightly to these beliefs in the face of repeated disconfirmations?" it asks. "Apparently one key reason is that they continue to hear the Bush administration confirming these beliefs."

Indeed, it says, "an overwhelming 82% [of Bush supporters] perceive the Bush administration as saying that Iraq had WMD (63%) or a major WMD program (19%). Only 16% of Bush supporters perceive the administration as saying that Iraq had some limited activities, but not an active program (15%) or had nothing (1%). The pattern on al Qaeda is similar. Seventy-five percent of Bush supporters think the Bush administration is currently saying Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda (56%) or even that it was directly involved in 9/11 (19%). Further, 55% of Bush supporters say it is their impression the Bush administration is currently saying the US has found clear evidence Saddam Hussein was working closely with al Qaeda (not saying clear evidence found: 37%)."

Looks like a pattern to me. I wonder what percent believe Clinton was convicted of perjury and Paula Jones settled out of court?