A very revealing survey about how voters are putting character above issues; this might be the proverbial two-edged sword.

The story presents poll results and nibbles at how the public judges character but does not go to any depth.

what this piece does is present our own American perceptions about ourselves. what is called character here as represented by honesty, etc., is simply a public image created by public statements and the media's choices of presentation, without any correlation to a real person. it would be like looking for the 'healthiest beer' as presented by tv commercials. the story is an example in itself of such media creativity. and we ourselves fall in love with this image of ourselves. these are the stories which get passed along as contributing to the national debate on issues.

Much as I agree that voters got it dead-wrong with Bush on "character," and intelligence and positions on issues should be more important, this tendency is interesting in light of the extreme marital problems of the coming batch of Republican candidates.

This is foolish and misleading. How did Georgre W. Bush get elected 2 times if the public knows how to rate character. His character was there for all to see before the first term. So the story is a faux pas on evaluating methods used by people to elect. a fair appraisal of what is actually used by people to elect.