A Washington Post poll in September 2003 found that nearly 70 percent of all Americans were convinced that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 9\/11 terrorist attacks — even though he was not.<\/p>\n
Bush, Cheney and others consistently linked al Qaeda to Hussein in speeches they gave in the run-up to war, and the media rarely pushed back. But neither Bush nor Cheney continued to claim that there were actual WMDs in Iraq once the searches came up empty — although they both continued to insist that Saddam had the “capability” to produce them.<\/p>\n
Rather than a failure of the media, therefore, this latest poll result seems to indicate a refusal — unique to the modern Republican Party — to acknowledge facts.<\/p>\n
According to this poll, an even larger proportion of Republican respondents who said Iraq had WMD — 64 percent — said they have either always believed (or have come to believe) that Barack Obama was born in another country, which he was not.<\/p>\n