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Editor and Publisher Don Rogers: Who are those fools?

Don Rogers
Vail, CO, Colorado

For all the “makers vs. takers,” “only poor dummies voted for Obama” talk, here are some facts to ponder:

– The 10 best-educated and wealthiest states in the country voted for Obama.

– The 10 least-educated, poorest states in the country voted for Romney.



– Four of the five richest counties in the country voted for Obama.

– The poor and uneducated are the least likely to vote.

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– A couple of recent studies found that Fox News watchers were the least informed of people who follow the news, followed by the lefty propaganda outlet, MSNBC.

What to make of this?

Following the election that put President Obama back in the White House by 4 million votes, the Republicans have continued on a strangely smug drumbeat claiming that the poor, stupid people somehow were fooled into re-electing that terrible president when anyone with a room-temperature IQ and some money would know better.

Therefore, it had to be that awful 47 percent, the takers, the welfare ticks and food stamp losers who let this fool back in.

It’s an interesting theory.

Rush Limbaugh seems to buy it. Fox News buys it. A lot of our letter writers and some of our columnists buy it.

Too bad that empirically, it’s nonsense.

The smarter, better educated, higher income folks tipped to … Obama.

True, white folks nationwide didn’t go for Obama, although they did in Eagle County, carried by our wealthier, better-educated precincts.

And had women, the young or Hispanics voted for Romney in a big way, he would have won, sure.

But this direction was obvious early on, while Romney sold his moderate soul to the tea party in the primaries and became the Republican version of 2004 candidate John Kerry, who had more positions than issues to take positions on.

I’m more curious about how the “smart” vote had to be for Romney, according to so many letter writers and pundits. To them, considering anything else would just be incredibly stupid. And yet the best and the brightest chose Obama, at least where their votes really counted.

I wonder if maybe Fox is holding back on another bit of news – that is, the studies showing that these viewers maybe aren’t quite so sharp as they thought. Starting with poor Karl Rove on Election Night.

If they were a little better informed, maybe they wouldn’t be so smug about losing.

That’s not very smart.

Editor and Publisher Don Rogers can be reached at drogers@vaildaily.com or 970-748-2920.


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