Most of the media will ignore this Zogby poll, since it gets in the way of the story being painted of the government’s efforts to save Terri Schiavo’s life as a right wing vendetta. And polls by ABC and Time sure seem to have been written to obtain a desired result.
The Zogby poll isn’t perfect either. To get a truly accurate picture, it should have mentioned the feeding tube more explicitly and the profound nature of Terri’s cognitive disability. But I think it more accurately depicts the mixed attitudes of the American people on this issue than the other polls being relied upon to support the conventional media wisdom.
Even more than polls, however, remains the relative quiescence of the Democrat Party on this matter. If politicos were convinced this were a winning issue against Republicans, there would be no end of speechifying. But there were reasons that most Democrats in the Congress voted for the federal law. First, many believed it was the right thing to do, e.g., Sens. Joe Lieberman, Tom Harkin, etc. Second, the grass roots drove the matter in a truly democratic fashion.
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