[kjo]

Funny thing is....millions voted against Ford for the Nixon pardon.....today, even Teddy Kennedy agrees it was the right thing to do.

[Names Ash Housewares]

It can all turn on a dime.
Nobody can predict the future.
Not even pollsters! LOL

But I know this, your candidates are far more likely to lose if you do not do something to help them win.

[GeeMoney]

If Ford doesn’t make that gaffe about Eastern Eurpore not being under Societ domintaion, he wins.

I just hope McCains comment about the economy being fundamentally strong doesnt have the same effect.

[goldstategop]

An election can turn on small things. This may be more like 1976 or 2004 if history is any guide. And a blowout is usually a late term shift in the polls that pollsters don't capture. I bet in 1980, none of the polls predicted Ronald Reagan would win in a landslide as he actually did. There are variables to people's political preferences no poll can accurately capture.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[se_ohio_young_conservative]

It is funny how some people on here freak out when the polls shift some. Gerald Ford was down 20-30 points and nearly won the election.

at this point in 1980. Carter was leading Ronald Reagan.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

Funny thing is, how does a pollster take into consideration that fact that people hate pollsters and lie to them all the time. The persons who answer the phones (at home no less) are partisan already.

BFD that Zogby, Rass or Gallup got it "close" once or twice. If everyone tried to reverse engineer a Snicker Bar, someone is bound to get "close."

What can't be polled, is the millions and millions of people that watch TV and see the Lame Stream Media pile on good, honest people like Palin and it fires them up. It brings pain to the active part of the brain and it festers there until election night and they go vote for the candidate who is most like them, or is viewed as the underdog in an unfair scorched earth attack like they are putting on Palin. THAT is the holy grail of polling and there will NEVER be anyone to harness its power. Afterward the pollsters will slap themselves on the back and congratulate the one who came the closest, but that's like fist-bumping the guy who called the lottery numbers but didn't play.

[21stCenturyFreeThinker]

I remember the debates between Carter and Ford as being very strange. Both candidates were nervous and their voices were unsteady. Not comforting knowing one or the other could next lead the US through the Cold War.

Ford's famous gaff about eastern Europe was only part of the story. In the days following the debate he insisted on standing behind his statement with bizarre statements claiming eastern Europe really wasn't under Soviet domination. A simple admission that he had a brain fart and misspoke would have gone a long way to saving him. A good lesson, it's not the one mistake you make but how you clean it up that counts.

[EGPWS]

What was the polling months before in '84 compared to actual between Reagan and Mondale?

It's off topic however Mondale was neck to neck with Reagan via polling and the media until the landslide election of the greatest president of the 20th century.

What happened in '84?

Even Minnesota is "neck to neck" in this race presently.

[word_warrior_bob]

However, in the next debate Ford incorrectly asserted that Eastern Europe was not under Soviet domination, and Carter pulled ahead, 48% to 42%.

______________

I wrote a term paper on this in college as this being the reason Ford lost the election.

[JimSEA]

In addition to the Nixon fiasco, the electorate was considerably different than it is today. When Carter was elected a sizable portion of the electorate either remembered the New Deal or could relate to it through their parents. The crazies on the far left were the hippies. Today the memories are of the hippies and the crazies are pure anti-democracy Marxists. IMHO this is a far more dangerous election.

[Plutarch]

I remember as a punk kid staring incredulously at Ford when he made that inexplicable gaffe about Eastern Europe not being under Soviet Domination. One utterance on Ford’s part cost us four horrific Carter years.