BY TAYLOR MARSH
About half of Americans (53%) can correctly identify the Democrats as the
party that has a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. In February
2007, shortly after the Democrats gained control of the House after a dozen
years of GOP rule, many more people (76%) knew the Democrats held the majority.The public is less familiar with the secretary of state (Condoleezza Rice)
and the prime minister of Great Britain (Gordon Brown). About four-in-ten
(42%) can name Rice as the current secretary of state. The public’s ability
to identify Rice has not changed much over recent years: In April 2006 and
December 2004, shortly before she was sworn in, 43% could correctly identify
her.The prime minister of Great Britain is not well known among the public. Just
more than a quarter (28%) can correctly identify Gordon Brown as the leader
of Great Britain.Overall, 18% of the public is able to correctly answer all three
political knowledge questions, while a third (33%) do not know the answer
to any of the questions.
Just a third of regular Rush Limbaugh listeners are college graduates, but
this audience scored as well on political knowledge as did regular business
magazine readers. Similarly, only about three-in-ten (31%) regular Hannity
& Colmes listeners are college graduates, but a relatively large proportion
(42%) answered all three questions correctly.Some highly knowledgeable and attentive news audiences – such as The New
Yorker’s, Limbaugh’s, Hannity & Colmes’ or Hardball’s – are older than
average. However, age is not always a correlate of political knowledge: the
CBS Evening News has one of the oldest audiences of the news outlets included
on the survey; 63% of the regular viewers of this program are 50 or older.
But just 10% of regular CBS News viewers correctly answered the three questions.The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are notable for having relatively well-informed
audiences that are younger than the national average: 34% of regular Colbert
viewers answered the three political knowledge questions correctly, as did
30% of regular Daily Show viewers. Less than a quarter of either audience
is older than 50 (22% Colbert, 23% Daily Show), compared with 41% of the general
public.
It also illustrates why we could end up with John McCain.
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