The votes are in. It's official: two thirds of SPIEGEL ONLINE visitors rate President George W. Bush's job performance as "very good" (59 per cent) or "good" (8 per cent).
An anonymus SPIEGEL ONLINE source described the results as a "complete surprise to us, comparable only to the demise of comrade Erich Honecker". At this very moment, the left-wing SPIEGEL ONLINE editorial team has convened for a strategy session with their media consultants to determine their future course.
"In terms of ideology, everything is now up for grabs," said the source. "We might even endorse Bush's re-election. Kerry's is a Knackwurst, anyway."
In a related development, the results of the SPIEGEL ONLINE poll caused Germany's foreign minister Joschka Fischer to send a message to President Bush, asking for a renewal of the German-American friendship: "My name is Joschka Fischer. I am the foreign minister of Germany and I want to negotiate."
In the meantime, SPIEGEL ONLINE has issued a public statement asking "all internet users with Pro-Bush sentiment to participate in our poll. We advise you to check the web site of David Kaspar for further instructions."
(Translation check by Ray D.)
I just voted and #1 is now 12453!
Posted by: Richard Heddleson | March 06, 2004 at 11:13 PM
It's high time that American news sites let us start voting on European issues.
Posted by: Aaron | March 07, 2004 at 02:12 AM
When do you think Spiegel will catch on?
bwahahaha!
Posted by: | March 08, 2004 at 04:59 AM
As much as I would love to agree that the Speigal poll was a great thing and showed Bush to be very popular, I also realize it is very flawed in that one can vote time and time again and add to the talley. In fact, I voted about 15 times (#1) in the course of re-visiting the poll to see how it was doing.
The fact that it was linked to a very conservative (and popular) German blogger and read by more than a few thousand Americans (who more than likely voted #1 just by the fact they are likely Bush conservatives reading a conservative blog) is in no way indicative of true German poll results on the issue of Bush.
I would argue the 7000 Saturday viewers to this blog all voted several times over in the course of re-visiting this very informal online poll.
Bottom line: This poll means nothing.
Eric
Posted by: Eric | March 08, 2004 at 07:01 AM