AMERICANS GET IT – AT 4:47 P.M. ET:  Americans, as usual, are showing themselves a lot smarter than the geniuses in the painstream media.  From London's Daily Mail:

A new poll has revealed that the majority of Americans do not believe frenzied political rhetoric was to blame for the Arizona massacre.

In the CBS survey, 57 per cent of people said they did not believe political vitriol was responsible for Jared Lee Loughner, 22, going on a shooting spree in Tuscon on Saturday.

Just 32 per cent of those questioned agreed there was a connection between the violence and the heated political tone.

And...

In the poll there was a definite split in opinion depending on which party the respondents supported.

Republicans were more likely to disagree that rhetoric was involved with 69 per cent of respondents saying political vitriol was not to blame while 19 per cent said it did play a role.

Whereas, Democrats were more undecided on the subject with 49 per cent responding that political rhetoric did not play a part while 42 per cent were convinced there was a connection.

COMMENT:  The breakdown by party isn't surprising.  Today's Democrats are taught to believe that it's always someone else's fault.  If someone commits a crime, it's society's fault.  If he uses a gun, blame the gun manufacturers.  If a kid fails in school, it's the school's fault. (If he didn't study, the school didn't make the subject interesting enough, or ethnically relevant.) 

President Obama has an opportunity here to rise above politics and make it clear that the blame lies squarely with the person pulling the trigger.  There is a legitimate question to be asked also about why the alleged assailant's mental-health record was not in the federal database.  If it had been there, he would have been prevented from buying the pistol he used to shoot on Saturday.

January 11, 2011