I notice the usual poll defeatists have skipped this thread. I wonder why - any idea, CatOwner?
There are always a few of them
you forgot NYC Republican.
I was in a meeting until 5 minutes ago. Thanks for the ping.
I noticed the same thing.
Oh where Oh Where is that Troll ?
What do you mean by "poll defeatist?" If you mean someone who doesn't trust the polls... well I'm one of those. I suggest none of us trust them for anything. There is no science to back up calling 800 people and find an accurate pulse of this nation of hundreds of millions.
So here we go: In 1996 the polls were used as propaganda to destroy any credible chance a very honorable man Sen. Bob Dole ever had to win the election. Some polls had him losing by as much as 28%. As the election got really close, the polls dropped down to a tight race (wonder why... hmmm?) but the damage had been done. The perception that Dole was going to get his clock cleaned by Clinton had been out there a very long time. The poll numbers hung like a dark cloud over his campaign, and muted enthusiasm. Quoting this vastly slanted polls, Bernie Shaw, then an anchorman for CNN pronouced around June that (paraphrased)"No sitting president(Bill Clinton) this far ahead in the polls at this time of year has ever lost an election." Comments like that helped drill the point home: Dole was going to lose, and lose BIG.
In the end, he lost by around 8%, if I recall. A UK journalist remarked that "if the American media had not been so biased, perhaps Sen. Dole might have had a chance." This was in 1996!
Dan Rather calling Georgia for Clinton... very early was pretty much the icing on the cake. How many people just stayed home or went straight home for work and gave up on voting we will never know. It took HOURS for them to finally correct the incorrect call on Georgia, obviously a must-win state for a conservative. This SHOULD have been a strong warning for what was to follow in 2000 (Florida).
After that election (1996) legislation was passed to make polls more responsible, but as Rush pointed out about the recent ABC poll just a few days ago, they are still a crooked bunch of peons that will put out good numbers for a price. The ABC poll was weighted 38% Democrats, 28% Republicans (I think he said), and around a third of the voters were African-American (and we know how that vote is going to go). So the poll was heavily slanted towards Obama. Thus, they published a 9% lead.
The great peril here is that polls can and have already been used as voter suppression many times. They can do this again. On election night they may try to call states in error again to psyche out the nations voters. In 2000 they called Florida before the Florida panhandle had finished voting (different time zone), and thats where a lot of the conservative vote is found.
Hows that for "poll defeatist?" I'll keep posting reminders through election night that we MUST go vote and encourage everyone to vote no matter what the liberal media and their liberal polls are telling us.