Ah, Me. What Can You Say?

About this:

A new poll shows that 57 percent of Americans continue to believe that Saddam Hussein gave"substantial support" to al-Qaida terrorists before the war with Iraq, despite a lack of evidence of that relationship.

In addition, 45 percent of Americans have the impression that" clear evidence" was found that Iraq worked closely with Osama bin Laden's network, and a majority believe that before the war Iraq either had weapons of mass destruction (38 percent) or a major program for developing them (22 percent).

There's no known evidence to date that these statements are true.

And, confirming the lack of concern with truth that I discussed here, there is this:

"We're so polarized right now that people are seeing what they want to see through a very partisan lens," said Thomas Mann, a political analyst and Brookings Institution scholar.

But there is also this:

The number of those who believed the year-old war would result in greater peace and stability in the Middle East has dropped from 56 percent in a Gallup poll in May 2003 to 40 percent last month in the PIPA poll.

And for the first time, a majority of Americans - 51 percent - said they thought that a majority of Iraqis wanted U.S. forces to leave. The survey was completed before the worst violence of the occupation erupted in April.

Well, I guess it could be said that people get the leaders they deserve.

Unfortunately, the rest of us get them, too.