The answer is two-fold. I used to think that pollaganda was completely ficticious, and creative fiction at that, because the results are malible into whatever the particular pundit wants them to indicate. While this is correct, the poll itself can offer some interesting insights, if only read at face value ( not being spun into a tizzy ). Bill Clinton's numbers for job approval have been reported in the 70 percent range, up from the 60s. People wishing him removed from office, are down from the 40 percent range to the 30s. Why the jump, in the week he has articles of impeachment voted out of the House of Representitives and sent to the Senate?

IGNORANCE.

Don't take offense at this term. Though it carries with it a derogatory connotation, it actually only means a lack of specific information.

Whatever the other " spun " poll results, pundits would urge you to believe indicate, I find this one to be the most important. Less than 1/3rd of the people polled watched any of the impeachment debate for themselves. This means they got their opinion from intuition, newspaper articles or a television/radio talking head. With 9/10ths of media people being of the Democrat presuasion, this can slant their opinions. Other poll results can be skewed by the pollee's lack of information on the subject. An individual's opinion on censuring Clinton may change if they did or did not understand the theory behind a censure motion itself. They may not understand that the censure could be expunged by a simple majority vote in a subsequent Congress, thus voiding any language or penalty as if it never happened. This is no slap on the wrist. It would be a temporary slap on the wrist, or, if you will, an amnesiac slap on the wrist. It would exist only in the memories of the people, after it was expunged!

SPINMEISTERS.

The current Whitehouse administration has made a fine art out of " spinning " ( lying or distorting the truth ) for the benefit of positive media coverage and swaying public opinion. This tactic of ' lie, deny and stick to it ', works the best on the above group of 1/3rd of the public, who are quite uninformed. This is not to say that it doesn't work on the partially or well informed individuals who are polled, obviously it does. Many people would rather believe a comfortable lie as opposed to the awful truth!

Lying and repeating the lie, is one of the major tactics that this Whitehouse uses. This works well, as in training a dog, the repetition of a command causes the desired resulting action to be done. Maybe ' wag the dog ', should really be ' train the dogs '? Think about how effective Clinton's January finger wagging denial of a relationship with Monica Lewinsky was, when coupled with the repetition of the same lie by all the Whitehouse Cabinet members and DNC talking head robots ( actually including the first lady ). This tactic is personally repugnant to me, as it indicates just how low they think the intelligence of the average citizen is! How does it feel to you, to be trained like a common animal, huh?

Changing the ' late breaking news ' subject, is another tactic. This is directly connected to the above tactic, as what is given the most coverage time in the media is most likely to be on the pollee's mind at the time of the poll. The best example of this, is the ' dead horse beaten ' wag the dog concept. Clinton has used this to perfection in the month of December and last week in particular. With the prospect of vast media coverage on the impeachment debate in the House, the Whitehouse had to figure out something more entertaining for the people to watch or read about. Nothing beats stuff getting blown up, so some new attacks on America's favorite villian, Saddam Hussein, were in order. Who cares if the attacks did any good or bad ( arguably either way ), but they did offer up a splendid diversion to the impeachment debate. I sincerely believe the attacks on Iraq were the sole factor in Clinton's job approval numbers going up. When these latest polls were taken, our military action in Iraq was fresh in their minds!

Remember, earlier in the year, as his poll numbers were sliding a bit, he tried to move the Mideast peace process forward with the Wye accords. This fiasco did result in some very positive media photo opportunities for the President, but the process itself was phoney and is now completely stalled. Clinton even tried to milk this one for more, going to Gaza and legitimizing the Palestinian government. Too bad this didn't help Netanyahu, who became the latest in a long line of destroyed individuals that seems to follow our fearless leader like a trail. The Palestinians used the American flags they were waving at Clinton, to ceremonially burn later in the week, to protest US attacks on Iraq!

How about in August, when he made his Grand Jury appearence and attack/apology speech of non-contrition. He couldn't attack Iraq at that time, because Kofi Annan had just gotten a signed letter of Iraqi compliance. So he created a new enemy in Osama bin Laden, in the wake of recent embassy bombings by terrorists. He launched some cruise missiles at now considered very suspect targets. An aspirin factory and group of tents in the mountains, were the targets of million dollar missiles. The Whitehouse spun this one so the public would believe there were actually terrorists present at the locations, but in fact there were none!

Attacking the messenger is a tactic used when the evidence is clear and uncontestable. The Whitehouse has used this in a vicious but effective manner. The extremely honorable and impartial Kenneth Starr was appointed independant counsel just because of those prior reasons. The Whitehouse was successful in sliming him, and thus tainting his report, to some people. What the Whitehouse never did, was to explain why Bill Clinton or Janet Reno didn't fire him, if he was so out of control and/or partisan? Think about this one long and hard!

I believe the President's current high poll numbers are not an indication of Bill Clinton's performance as our leader, but an indication of the success of his Whitehouse media propaganda machine, in taking advantage of the 24 hour news cycle.

- Bongo ( Not responding to the " operant " conditioning? )