Zogby conducted an interesting telephone survey of Barack Obama voters a week after the election.

According to his Web site, ninety-four percent of Obama voters correctly identified Sarah Palin as the candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter, 86 percent matched Palin with a $150,000 wardrobe purchased by her political party and 81 percent chose John McCain as the candidate who was unable to identify the number of houses he owned. When asked which candidate said they could "see Russia from their house," 87 percent selected Palin, although the quote, according to Zogby, actually is attributed to Tina Fey.

These are extremely high scores. Given something called the "ballot bias," they could be considered to be almost perfect.

But did Obama voters know any negative information about their own candidate? No. About the same percent that could accurately identify negative statements about Palin and McCain could NOT identify negative comments about Obama and Biden.

The survey also included a question simply asking which political party controlled Congress leading up to the election. Almost 60 percent of Obama voters were unable to correctly answer that Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate.

The poll was criticized because the questions about Palin and McCain were of recent events and the Obama/Biden incidents were older. The Obama voters were also defended using the benchmark defense: How many questions would McCain voters miss?

Both apologies miss the point. Americans remember what they have seen and heard repeatedly in the news. If the media spent the next six weeks hammering away about the number of homeless cats in Chicago, the next public opinion poll would show the "number one" concern of Americans would be homeless cats in Chicago.

It appears that, irrespective of the way the data is sliced, the average Obama voter knew exactly what the major media wanted her to know, and the major media wanted Obama elected.

Power in a Nanny State is largely dependent upon ignorance. The major media did their part, but the level of civic knowledge is low to start with. The pride of the Nanny State, the public education system, had already seen to it.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute has been surveying thousands of freshmen and seniors at colleges and universities nationwide over the last several years. Their multiple-choice exam is on basic knowledge of America's history and civics.

Students typically get only about half of the questions correct. A person would get more than 20 percent correct by just guessing.

Some schools not only did not improve their students' knowledge of American history, evidently some actually taught a type of anti-history.

Seniors at Berkeley and Yale, for example, scored lower on the test than did freshmen.

This year, the Institute sampled 2,500 American adults of all backgrounds. They were asked 33 civics questions.

I took the test. I thought it was difficult, but I still scored in the top 98 percentile. So, based on your opinion of my intelligence, you may make a judgment of the test.

The results: Less than half of our fellow citizens can name all three branches of the government. Only about half knew that the power to declare war belongs to Congress. About one in four thought that Congress shares authority over U.S. foreign policy with the United Nations. Only 27 percent knew the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States.

Men scored higher than women. Although liberals know without any doubt that they are the smartest people on the planet, both liberals and conservatives scored the same within the margin of error.

In a Nanny State, a person's vote is not swayed by history, because the voter knows no history. Her vote is not influenced by political philosophy because she knows no philosophy. Her vote is not modified by her actual knowledge of the candidates, because her view of the candidates is the transitory image broadcast to her by a media more interested in creating news than in reporting it.

She votes for the candidate who promises her the most protection, the one that "cares" the most for her, the one that will take care of her when she is sick, old, and in danger. She votes for the candidate who promises her that hard decisions will never occur, and that she will never ever have to grow up.

The voter is always a she, because irrespective of gender, being masculine is politically incorrect in a Nanny State.