-Is the summation your summation of the situation or the summation of the reported data?

-I agree with previous poster that The data shows that the # of people who think we are "headed in the wrong direction" is almost equal to the number of people who DON'T "think George Bush has done a good job." The assessment would therefore assume they are one in the same… Which is not what it seems that you are saying…

So homeowners are not responsible for buying homes they couldn't afford??

I'm sorry, I just don't see which side you are taking on any of this, how you are analyzing the data, and what points you are making.

I do however know where I stand on these issues:

-Bush can't be blamed for everything just as he wasn't given credit for when things were great and unemployment was at an all time low and the stock market was at an all time high.

-Home owners are responsible for buying homes they can't afford regardless of what lenders told them…it's common sense, a variable rate mortgage is VARIABLE and will go up….it's common sense, the housing market couldn't sustain the trajectory it was on…

Ummmm…. wouldn't 28% be less than ONE third, not two thirds?

Love the name of your Blog. I'll see you here, there or in the air.

ScottOnCapeCod

In our society today there seems to be an epidemic of trying to find villains and fix blame, and a severe deficit of self-examination, of us being willing to ask what we may have done to contribute to problems.

There are no problems that cannot be solved, just people unwilling to solve them. The mind of Christ understands that and seeks to build healthy, harmonious relationships between people (otherwise known as peace). It is hard for me to contribute to this process if I am busy trying to prove that everything is someone else's fault.

End of sermon.

And yet, 28% of Americans think George Bush is doing a good job as president. So even though the vast majority of us think things are going poorly, two-thirds of us don’t blame George Bush for that."

I think your math is off. If 28% believe Bush is doing a good job, 71% believe he isn't. Which is close, statistically (within 10%) to how many believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. Also, two-thirds is 67%, which is pretty close to the amount of people who don't think he's doing a good job.

"But you know whom we do blame? “Government officials.” Sixty-eight percent of us think the housing crisis is due to regulators and lenders. Only 14% of us blame the borrowers."

Somebody had to approve them as borrowers, didn't they? Like a relationship, it takes two to tango.

"But 53% of us think the government should help bail out homeowners who took out loans they couldn’t afford."

I think the government should impose penalties on the irresponsible institutions who lent the money in the first place, which would provide relief to the consumers.

"In summation: The country is way off track, especially economically. That is not, however, the president’s fault. It’s the fault of government officials, who clearly can’t be trusted to run the economy. But government officials should definitely save the economy, by giving money to homeowners, who really can’t be blamed for buying homes they couldn’t afford."

I'm not sure how you summarize that from what you said. Sort of, I guess, but I think you're taking a bit of a leap. Especially toward simplicity, as there are complex concepts at work here. 71% of Americans believe it's the president's fault, which is clearly the majority, and the government needs to impose higher taxes on the upper-most brackets to provide relief for those in the lower ones.

"Oh: And we now care more about our wallets than we do the war in Iraq."

Of course. Just ask Cheney, who's made untold millions via Halliburton's defense contracts. You think Cheney cares about freedom in Iraq or terrorism? No; he just wants us scared so he can make more money.