Opinion: More on The Times Poll: Wrong track, Bush, the bailout and $1,000 loans

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A few more Ticket tidbits from Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll:

-- 84 out of your 100 closest friends think the country is on the wrong track. Ten of them think the country’s going along just fine. And six of them have been watching TVLand the last several months and don’t have a clue.

-- Everybody thinks President George W. Bush is doing a good job except 72 of those same 100 friends; 23 of them like his performance, and there are still five friends watching cable.

-- Nine of your friends think the economy’s doing well, most of them guys. The other 90 are pretty certain it’s not. And one’s still inside clutching the TV remote. (However, 59 of them think their own situation is pretty good, while 38 feel a little shaky.)

-- A plurality of your pals (42) think things will improve by income tax time next spring.

-- Apparently your 100 friends have not been paying the closest attention to the campaign, because 26 of them think John McCain and Barack Obama need to talk some more about strengthening government regulations, 15 want more yada-yada about unemployment, 13 of them want to hear more on foreclosures, 12 on taxes and six of them are still glued to the tube.

Maybe they’ll hear that later today. Tonight’s the last presidential debate, to be blogged live right here on The Ticket as usual, starting just before 6 p.m. Pacific.

-- If your 100 friends knew that a congressional candidate in their district voted for the recent financial bailout bill signed by the president, 60 of them wouldn’t care; 18 of them would be more likely to vote for that candidate, 16 of them less likely and eight of them were in the bathroom when that came on TV.

-- Finally, for reasons that 100% of us can only guess at, Times pollsters asked your 100 friends if they had to come up with $1,000 for an emergency by next week, would it be difficult or easy?

Of those 100 people, 62 said easy, 35 said difficult, five said impossible and two of those darned TV-watchers said they didn’t know. We suspect those two already have the money on them.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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