PAT SPEER SAID:
I see your point, David, but I assure you that the [2003 ABC News poll] question is deceptive.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Well, your "assurance" doesn't mean much.
PAT SPEER SAID:
If asked, point blank, "Do you believe Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy?" -- do you REALLY believe 83% of those asked would say "yes"?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Yes. Absolutely.
But you don't need my opinion on that matter, because we have the results of just such a "Do You Think LHO Shot JFK?" inquiry in black-and-white via the ABC News poll from 2003:
http://www.pollingreport.com/news3.htm#Kennedy
The "gunman" question in that ABC poll couldn't be any clearer, with ABC asking those 1,031 people if they thought Oswald was the "ONLY GUNMAN" or if there was "ANOTHER GUNMAN IN ADDITION TO OSWALD" or if Oswald was "NOT INVOLVED IN THE ASSASSINATION AT ALL".
I think you're probably confusing the answer you'd get from kooks at Internet forums with the answer you'd get to that question from the vast majority of Americans who don't frequent pro-conspiracy Internet boards.
The Anybody-But-Oswald nuts that are abundant online certainly do not reflect the thinking of the majority of America.
Probably 85% of the kooks online think Oswald never fired a shot. But, as the ABC poll demonstrates, the majority of people in the mainstream who have an opinion on the subject believe Oswald was firing a gun at JFK.
That doesn't mean, however, that that same mainstream doesn't believe in a conspiracy, as these numbers from the exact same 2003 ABC News poll readily suggest:
"Do you feel the Kennedy assassination was the work of one man, or was it part of a broader plot?":
One Man -- 22%
Broader Plot -- 70%
No Opinion -- 8%
Also, let me add this:
You, Pat Speer, seem to think the ABC poll's "gunman" question is deceptive and misleading. But let me ask you this:
If the 83% of people who comprise the first two categories of that "gunman" question really DIDN'T believe that Oswald was a "gunman" at all, then why on Earth would they have responded the way they did to that poll's question (which, as I said, couldn't be any clearer with respect to the first two segments of that inquiry, with the word "gunman" appearing in both segments)?
Why would 83% say that LHO was a gunman if a certain percentage of those respondents really DIDN'T believe such a thing?
I'll leave you to sort out my last question in your own mind.
David Von Pein
February 25, 2009
