We're always wary of polls here, especially when they seem to confirm that which we'd like to believe is so. This new one from the Pew Research Center — which I assume never took a survey to determine if that was a good name for a polling service — is therefore to be taken with great caution. Others can analyze its findings in a lot more depth but the bottom line is that the Bush/Cheney/Rove policies are driving voters away from the G.O.P. and also from traditional G.O.P. positions. This does not seem to be a case of Democrats doing anything right but of Republicans scaring people away.
One thing that caught my eye was this item…
The public expresses highly favorable views of many leading corporations. Johnson & Johnson and Google have the most positive images of 23 corporations tested. At the bottom of the list: Halliburton, which is viewed favorably by fewer than half of those familiar enough with the company to give it a rating.
How could anyone have a bad image of Johnson & Johnson or Google? I mean, let's leave aside someone who might have worked for one of those companies and been routinely flogged and caned while there. If you're part of the general public, what could possibly bother you about either firm? All you probably know about Johnson & Johnson is that they make band-aids and baby shampoo. Google is for most people, nothing more than a free search engine that gets you where you want to go on the Internet. Where are the negatives in any of that? How did those companies get even a 5-6% unfavorable rating, which is what the survey says?
I can understand people having problems with McDonald's or Coca-Cola, feeling that the companies are too pushy in selling unhealthy products. I can understand people having bad feelings about any of the airlines mentioned due to bad flights. I can see being down on Pfizer because it's a drug company and there have been some charges of it paying off government officials to keep drug prices high…and the low ratings for Exxon/Mobil or Halliburton are easy to fathom. A lot of people probably hate Starbucks just because they're so hard to avoid.
But what's the complaint that 6% of respondents have about Google? What exactly has that company done to bother anyone?