Nobody Knows Who Max Baucus Is
I’m actually a bit surprised that the public is this well-informed since I always have low expectations:
The news quiz, which was conducted by the Pew Research Center, asked respondents to identify, from a list of public officials, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee tasked with writing healthcare reform legislation. Fifty-six percent of respondents said they did not know and 18 percent chose Baucus.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) were chosen by 11 and 7 percent of respondents, respectively, while 1 percent selected Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Feinstein and McCain do not sit on the Finance panel.
By comparison, 40 percent of Americans know that the controversial Glenn Beck is a television and radio talk show host.
Of course on some level it doesn’t matter whether people know who Max Baucus is or not. Far less than one percent of the population actually lives in Montana and thus has some ability to hold Baucus accountable. The rest of us just live here.
21 Responses to “Nobody Knows Who Max Baucus Is”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Matt YglesiasContact Me
Donate
October 14th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
“Me love Bush. Me loves anything that gives foliage to the punani area.”
October 14th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
Interesting, if you go to pewresearch.org you can answer the same questions about current events and see how well you stack up to the US population.
By the way, 8 percent said Sebelius, not 1.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
In defense of my countrymen, that Glenn Beck comparison is a little apples-to-oranges for my taste. “Max Baucus is the chair ofthe Senate Finance Committee” is a lot more detailed that “Glenn Beck is on TV”, so it’s not surprising that more people would get the Beck one right. If only 18% recognized that Baucus was a senator, for example, or 40% knew the title of a Glenn Beck book (~same specificity as the Baucus factoid) w/o prompting, then the Hill might be on to something.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
In fairness, I wish I didn’t know who Max Baucus is. Ignorance may not be bliss, but it beats the torment of knowledge. Better to be delusional than depressed. And being depressed is probably better than being bipolar. At least you know how you’ll feel when you wake up. If the world doesn’t drive you crazy, you’re not paying attention.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
evan @ 3
Hadnt thought of it that way, but yeah
good catch
October 14th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I’m pretty surprised at some of these results. 65% know Sotomayor, 61% know US health care is more expensive than Europe, 56% know the public option deals with health care. I expected those to be closer to the 23% that know what cap and trade deals with. I guess more people watch the news on a semi-regular basis than you would think.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Among interesting findings:
23% of men know who Baucus is, but only 12% of women.
Republicans outscore Democrats on every question but one – that health care is more expensive here. Shocking.
Only 15% of Democrats know about cap and trade, compared to 27% of Republicans. I guess certain conservative personalities talk about it a lot.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
Here’s what gets me – 6% managed to get all 12 questions wrong.
I’ve not taken math since high school, but if I recall my statistics correctly, randomly guessing with 1 in 4 odds twelve times should produce 12 wrong answers around 3.2% of the time.
Meaning roughly twice as many got all of them wrong as should have, even assuming no knowledge and guessing at random.
Does this indicate active misinformation, that people choose wrong answers again and again because they’ve been misled?
Is my math wrong?
October 14th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Meaning roughly twice as many got all of them wrong as should have, even assuming no knowledge and guessing at random.
You’re forgetting the “don’t know/no answer” options. On the Baucus question, 56% of people gave no answer. If people had to guess one of the four, I would imagine every question would get at least 25%, but that wouldn’t be as accurate for measuring public knowledge.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Since the Democratic Party seems more intent upon sucking the cocks of the Republicans and their allies — rather than criticizing them and holding them accountable to the voters — it is not a surprise to learn that the voters don’t know who is fucking them and why.
Maybe someday we will have a political party that actually exposes and fights Washington DC’s whoring for the Superrich.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Yep, that explains it.
I took the test myself as #2 Glenn suggested, and in taking it online, there’s no “don’t know option”, and forgot all about the actual methodology.
It’d be interesting to see how those who took the test online fared.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Oy. “don’t know” option.
Maybe I should just take a nap.
October 14th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
That’s why Max can corporafornicate with impunity. Dirty Max:
1. added $1 billion in tax credits/Treasury loans to the bill for corporations pursuing new treatments
2. dropped clinical lab fees/taxes altogether
3. raised the deduction for unreimbursed medical expenses from 7.5% to 10% of AGI.
Note the pattern, corporations get investment money and a free pass. Individuals lose. PEU’s (private equity underwriters) win again!
October 14th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Max Baucus sausage maker.
http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/Max_Baucus_the_Senator_from_Wellpoint_91014
October 14th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
By comparison, 99.5% of Americans know that Michael Jordan is a basketball player. Goes to show you…
October 14th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
I don’t know how many people here will be interested but Howard Dean and Democracy for American (DFA) are circulating a petition asking Congress to include a Public Option in the Healthcare bill.
See http://www.americacantwait.com/
Dean will also be chatting tomorrow at 10 am on Daily Kos .
October 14th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Max Baucus is nothing. If it wasn’t Max Baucus, it would have been someone else. The only reason Max Baucus stands out, if he stands out all, is for how cheaply he was bought. For less than $3 million you can buy this particular Senate Finance Committee Chairman, because Max Baucus happens to be a man without character and a Senator from an empty state. Most other Senators would not submit so easily for so little. But they would submit. Everyone can be bought.
$400 million was spent by Health Insurance industry over the last 4 months, in the stretch run, to defeat health care reform. Where did that money go? It did not go directly into the pockets of Senators -at least not legally. Lobby money could only work on the periphery of the system, and yet it worked its magic. Did it not?
What happens when the Supreme Court soon obliterates campaign finance laws that have stood for almost 100 years? What happens when you can pay a Senator directly? Instead of funding a Senator’s future campaign knowing the money cannot be kept by the Senator personally, you fund a Senator’s campaign with the full knowledge that the Senator can retire with the money. All of it. And legally. $5 million. $50 million. $2 billion. Whatever it takes.
Many of us would agree: much of our democracy has already been bought. I would submit it has been bought cheaply, and for the most part, indirectly. Now imagine what happens when 1,000 times the amount of money currently in play is allowed to hit the system, and hit the system not on periphery, not indirectly, but directly. Money is allowed, in fact encouraged, to flow directly into the right people’s pockets.
Consider this.
October 15th, 2009 at 12:18 am
As a Montanan, I wish I didn’t know who Baucus was.
October 15th, 2009 at 12:56 am
I’m waiting for the movie, Brokesick Mountain.
It will show Max living high on his hog ranch, while 25 million Americans still have no health insurance.
October 15th, 2009 at 10:24 am
It makes a great deal of difference because Baucus is merely a symptom of a deeper problem: the Kabuki game that the Democrats are playing.
Time after time we encounter excuse after excuse: “We need a greater vote,” “We must be bipartisan,” “Wait until next year,” “Let’s celebrate nuance” “This is what can get through Washington” “Harry Reid is being Harry Reid!” “Joe Lieberman is being Joe Lieberman!” “Rush Limbaugh is saying something nasty!” and so forth.
The entire Democratic Party is responsible for this situation. As Atrios points out, a Republican filibuster is unpossible. Yes the Republican party is atrocious. But right now the Democrats are just playing the good cop in a good cop / bad cop routine.
October 15th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
This survey – and every other survey that asks people civics questions and then acts shocked when people can’t answer – is essentially meaningless and exists just so “knowledgeable” people can stick up their noses at the ignorant masses. Here’s why:
Our information systems are not set up so that we need to know the internal organization of Senate committees. When I read an article or blog post on health care, I do not need to memorize and reference an org chart to understand what’s happening in the news. I don’t need to do that because journalistic practices provide the information for me, within the context of the article.
As a result, we have a lot of people who know that Max Baucus, the senate Finance committee, and the writing of a new health care bill are important – along with Sebelius and other senators – but not a lot of people who know, off-hand, the titles of these people.
The real question to ask is not whether or not people know whether Baucus has a specific role, but whether people would be surprised to learn that he is the chairman and tasked with writing health care reform. There’s a huge difference between knowing something when gently reminded and knowing something off-hand.