America says bring on the bailout

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The majority of Americans say they favor a Wall Street bailout, the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has just reported. The question asked was:

As you may know, the government is potentially investing billions to try and keep financial institutions and markets secure. Do you think this is the right thing or the wrong thing for the government to be doing?

57% said right, 30% said wrong, and 13% said dunno or didn’t answer.

Democrats were 56% in favor, Republicans 64%, and Independents 54%.

I do wonder if the answer might have been different if they’d said “$700 billion” or “close to $1 trillion” instead of just “billions.” But I do think this is yet another indication that the people who call Congressional offices to complain–we heard a lot about them during the hearing today–aren’t necessarily representative of the overall electorate.

Update: I feel the need to add that, if you put the name “Troubled Asset Relief Program” (Treasury’s moniker for the proposed bailout) into the Sarah Palin baby name generator (which I just learned about from TIME’s Gilbert Cruz), you get “Flack Gobbler Palin.”