Elena Kagan? Elena Kagan. Most Americans can't say they know the name this morning | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

My favorite stats of the day

38% of Americans favor Elana Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court and 30% oppose her. That means 68% have an opinion.

But the same poll shows that only 19% of Americans know who she is.

In other words, about half of all Americans have formed an opinion about a subject they know absolutely nothing about.

The saddest thing about this is that it doesn't surprise me. If it were about a new shampoo, I'd be thinking, "The numbers must be wrong. Either the questions are not worded clearly or the poll must be improperly constructed in some other way." But it's about politics, so I assume the numbers reflect reality - people don't know who she is, but they have already decided whether she should have one of the most important jobs in the USA.