So, whenever we're responding to something in the news, something a candidate for President or Congress said, something a pundit spouted on the Sunday bobblehead fests, and we get the urge to speak for regular people and tell our reader how they're feeling or thinking or likely to feel and think, we'd better have some specific facts to back it up, poll numbers for instance.
Because...
While we're writing about an issue or a candidate or an event, putting all our passion, intelligence, insight, and talent into it, most normal people are reacting to the issue or candidate or event by saying to themselves, "Damn! I forgot to pick up the bread."
Yes. I may think I am right, but I know it's my job to persuade nonpolitical people of my rightness, because I have enough residual common sense to remember that my political instincts are not (ahem) universal. Bear this in mind when you next hear someone from our side of the political aisle call for radical action on some topic: "Impeach now!" or "Bring all troops home now!", etc. What most people want in policy terms is competence at the basic functions of government. The Congressional Republicans, for example, got fired in 2006 because they did not do their jobs as defined by normal people, not activists.
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