Yet Another Poll

The Scripps Howard people are back with an astonishing poll result:

Nearly two-thirds of Americans think it is possible that some federal officials had specific warnings of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, but chose to ignore those warnings, according to a Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University poll.

An earlier Scripps Howard/Ohio University survey, conducted in July 2006, revealed that more than one-third of Americans thought federal officials assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East.

"What (the recent survey) could mean is that people are thinking that the Bush administration is incompetent, that there were warnings out there and they chose to put their attention on other things," Fenster said.

Indeed, it sounds like the poll question got MIHOP, LIHOP and LIHOI (Incompetence) mixed together. Unfortunately I cannot locate the poll itself to find out the questions asked, although as we saw in last year's poll, there is an indication that this was a poll that may have self-selected conspiracy theorists:

A national survey of 811 adult residents of the United States conducted by Scripps and Ohio University found that more than a third believe in a broad smorgasbord of conspiracy theories including the attacks, international plots to rig oil prices, the plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the government's knowledge of intelligent life from other worlds.

Suppose you're getting asked these questions. A reasonable person might decide, hey, this is a bunch of nonsense and hang up, where a conspiracy theorist might be more inclined to follow through to the end.