- ROCHESTER, United States
(AFP) - Fahrenheit 9/11, the blockbuster documentary that slams President
George W. Bush's handling of the war on terror, is playing well with a
critical voting bloc, according to a survey.
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- Independent or swing voters are not only flocking to
see the movie in numbers equal to those of Democrats, but an overwhelming
majority of them are lapping it up, according to a Harris Poll.
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- More than two-thirds (70 percent) of self-styled independent
voters who saw the doucumentary came away with a postive impression of
it, compared to 89 percent of Democrats and 44 percent of Republicans.
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- And more than half of the independents (56 percent) said
they thought the movie was fair to President George W. Bush, versus 85
percent of Democrats and 30 percent of Republicans.
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- The results of the online poll appear to contradict predictions
of some right-wing critics of the movie who had predicted it would only
appeal to Democrats and hence have little or no effect on public opinion.
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- It may also give Republican strategists pause for thought
just over three months from the presidential election in which swing voters
are expected to carry the day for one or other party.
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- The online poll of 2,242 adults conducted earlier this
month also found a sizable Republican minoritiy rated the movie as positive
(44%), while about a third felt it even gave the president a fair crack
of the whip.
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- The film, by director Michael Moore, which took top honors
at the Cannes Film Festival in May, bashes Bush over the war in Iraq and
for an alleged erosion of US civil rights amid the war against terror,
and has beat all previous box-office records for a documentary.
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