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John asked me to review the latest national poll by CNN
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/09/cnn-poll-obama-holds-7-point-lead-over-romney/
which has BO up by 7. I did not have time before the show, but have just taken a look.
1. Sample is 1,010 ADULTS, incl. 911 RV. Unsure whether only RV answers were reported, but RV is only slightly less useless than adults;
2. No demographics (a.k.a., “crosstabs”) were included in the report. Without any fucking crosstabs, there’s no way to know how many dems vs. gops were interviewed, men vs. women, etc.;
3. One question did ask whether the country would be better off with the dems controlling Congress or the Gops. Answer was 39 R, 45 D, 11 neither. This can serve as a rough substitute for party identification breakouts, making a Dem +6 to yield an obama +7. Whoop-di-fucking-doo!
4. There were too many goddamn questions. I’m amazed they got a thousand people to complete it;
5. Why won’t CNN disclose the demographics?
6. All in all, it’s a worthless piece of garbage. Had it been completed for private business, the client would rightly demand their money back.
As you stated in the program it is propaganda. These polls are being “created” to support the false narrative that Obama is popular and winning. This is essentially the only thing that is propping up his regime. They have to maintain the fantasy that he is popular and a beloved leader. As long as he is popular, not competent or respected, but rather a feeling that he is popular they can forestall the implosion. There are secondary benefits as well such as getting his base off their asses to go vote, making pointed criticism appear unseemly for such a popular and beloved person, and the general facade that he knows what the hell he is doing which he clearly doesn’t. It is smoke and mirrors.
It’s also fascist. And his cultist followers don’t mind he lies, so long as his lies work.
Freedom of the press is one of the pillars of a free society. In other places, other times, people had their presses smashed, their offices burned, were even murdered, because they insisted on speaking the truth. Many ran secret, hand-cranked presses and distributed leaflets at great peril, like the Scholls.
Yet in America today, our press willingly & eagerly sold out, pawned its freedom for some Nielson points & FSI buys.
That was my question exactly. I surmised that that CNN’s recent turn around was their attempt to bulk up their credibility just so they could release this obvious outliar poll. Misspelling of “outliar” intentional.
BTW, I appreciated the show. It made me think. Obviously. http://peacocksandlilies.com/2012/08/09/what-the-john-smarts-of-the-world-are-not-seeing/
Great work on all parts.
This is key.
“The press” is an institution, though, and cannot sell out or lie; human beings do that. The reason that’s key is: for the press of a free society as big as ours to willingly “sell out,” millions of ordinary individual human beings, one by one, have to sell out.
A free citizenry eagerly selling out happens when fanaticism has taken hold, when enough of the citizenry willingly joins a movement. In a healthy society movements stay small and on the fringe, they’re cults. But when emptiness overtakes too many in a society the fanaticism isn’t seen as abnormal (cult), it’s felt by enough people that it seems normal and becomes a movement. We’ve seen it in our time with the Right (religious right, Dubya & terrorism, tea party) and then the Left (Obama) and now movement-leaning lefties who rejected Obama are receptive to a movement of their own.
“The Press” –and all movement drivers and joiners– are ordinary people looking for a way to be bigger than their emptiness feels inside. Obama provided that. He wasn’t the first; he won’t be the last.
Human beings do terrible things when they’ve felt small and empty then find something fanatical that makes them feel powerful.
Pingback: What the John Smarts of the World are Not Seeing « peacocks and lilies
Lola, I wrote a lengthy response in your comments. Too lengthy. But hey, people write long stuff here so I figured – WTF?
I like the back and forth. Also, I must agree with a sentiment above: Lies work in politics. A lot. almost always in fact. If they didn’t Ann Richards would have defeated W, and W would never have been potus, Hillary would be Potus now…
Got your comment and responded. I love long comments, FTR! Evidence that thinking is going on, and I love nothing so much a thinkers.
And, in other news, Goldman-Sachs gets off scot-free:
http://news.yahoo.com/doj-not-prosecute-goldman-sachs-financial-crisis-probe-003911643–abc-news-politics.html
Can’t say Obama doesn’t pay his debts.
Nothing to see here folks, move along!
Isn’t it just too cute that this is coming out now? Wall St is not ponying up like 2008. So Obama sucks up and sells out one last time and has the press cover it. Is Corzine giving one of the nominating speeches for old times sake?
One thing for certain, the propaganda narrative among the MSM is in lockstep — Romney has already been framed as a loser, and the polls are showing growing support for Der Fuehrer.
Fox is in on the conspiracy: it has BO up 49/40, yet among LV in the same poll, it’s 48/48.
Of course they’re in lockstep. What made you think it’d be any other way?
Americans have a lockstep mindset now. Conform to the seducers and bullies or watch as they try to torch you for dissent. “Agree with us or we’ll see that you’re shunned.” It’s evident right here on blogs as well. What other times and places in history has this been the case? And how does it play out?
I saw that yesterday with CNN running an editorial with the headline “Why Romney is Losing.” And I thought: WTF? Romney isn’t losing. But that’s the story that will, apparently, be pushed from now to November.
Fox protected him in 08 they’ll protect him now.
Breitbart gleaned an interesting detail in the opaque CNN metrics: respondents were divided in two: Dem/lean vs. GOP/lean. The ratio? 55/45.
Ha! Typical. The press doesn’t scare me at all.
I agree with everyone that the press is carrying water for some narrative. Whether this is a bigger election narrative – Romney must “lose” before the election so we can move on to…whatever…attacking Iran maybe? Or a story is being set up to for a MR comeback and tight race. And polls on the “eve” of the VEEP pick showing MR fading is a good set up to gauge the person’s usefulness to Romney. Does he (almost certainly a he) help? Or is he a bust?
I think the Obama/media over arching narrative to punk Romney is on track: constant assault, consolidate the base, Big lie after big lie – doesn’t matter if they have any basis in reality, demean the overseas trip….set up ‘he is a loser meme’ in all ways BEFORE conventions and veep pick (see Newsweek cover etc and now a pattern of polls). Both MR’s Veep pick and convention speech will be downgraded within a few news cycles. Whereas the Dem convention will be subtly deemed a success – Bubba leads the way on this one – Romney goes into the Fall as Kerry or Dukakis depending on the day. Obama 2008 is dead but Obama 2012 is deemed an acceptable alternative to Romney. Axelrod is using all his assets. Romney has fewer and he’s not even using those.
Romney’s people do not understand what is happening in the big picture. The only way to defeat a plan like this is a massive, overwhelming, frontal assault. Something that sucks the air out of the room. Something damning enough to force Obama’s media to cover it. It’s there with Obama, I’m sure of it. The Post story on the Napolitano law suit is a good example of the type of story needed but the story would have to be about Obama. If this story can be tied to “lesbians running domestic security for Obama” it could work. Sorry, it’s nasty but nasty is what works – I’m not endorsing this stuff I’m just looking at the “game”.
I presumed the GOP would do this with Solyndra, FandF etc. That is, seed the ground with corruption and incompetence memes….then drop the anvil…to mix my early morning metaphors. Instead Obama’s done just that all year. Engage base, demean Romney, the next step is to overwhelm him with something only a sitting POTUS can do. Don’t know what it will be. But I bet it’s coming.
Romney’s people have a solid plan to win the election against a normal rival. Not a Chicago team of thugs working in tandem with 75% of the media. Romney is being turned into Dukakis. If he wants to win some much tougher campaign people need to show up. The GOP superpacs will need to seize on a scandal and eviscerate Obama, not with “feelings” commercials about people in distress. At this point they need a “revelation” about Obama that stuns most voters. Brietbart knew this moment was coming but he…uh…dropped dead.
Obama’s weakness is that he’s Obama. That will help Romney a lot. But Obama is largely succeeding in making him an unsuitable alternative so far. I do not understand how these guys keep letting July and August get away from them. They ought to know this dynamic by now.
The only angle that’d work is obama’s time at Columbia. Pull at one loose thread, and the whole fabric of lies will come apart.
Or if someone could get ahold of that Khalidi b-day party tape, and find barry saying something nasty about Israel.
They ought to know this dynamic by now.
imo they do. Eventually It becomes inescapable that if a GOPer , with thier Atwater/Rove bloodlines, is not doing all you laid out, then something is up. Even if the frontal attack only derailed the media’s Barry drumbeat, it would be of huge value to someone trying to win since once a crafted narrative is interrupted, it takes them at least a few news cycle to get on track . If this keeps up, something stinks.
Polls have been created and cooked for many years now, it’s what they are for . The sad fact of our media is no one will pay for the broadcast of reality. Their job is to act as a sea wall and stop that. It would be useful to have a small sign near by one’s media out let that says, “It’s all lies” . I find it’s a real time saver.
The only thing published polls will tell one is what it is those who paid for them want to be believed…it’s kind of like the phony books repugs published though out the Clinton years. They publish this hokum ( some underling wrote of course) so they could gin up articles, go on talk shows and talk about the hokum : rinse and repeat . The books ginned up the spin, today the polls exist to do like wise….the spin Barry is popular! lol!
My favorite one of those books was written by an ex Secret Service guy who revealed that the Clinton White House Christmas trees were all “hung” with pornographic figurines.
Odd, that the hundreds of people who trooped through the White House during the holidays-this was pre-9/11-failed to notice such an outrage.
Good times.
It’s a good ad at this point because it appeals to the head. And they finally got a different kind of voice over guy.
BTW – today Romney profited from death squads in El Salvador. Huffpo says so. Monday there will be something else.
This stuff won’t stop without a huge, debilitating scandal type story about Obama.
Somehow, that kind of tripe smacks of desperation.
But you know, I think he killed my pear tree. It was on my terrace for years, and I’m sure Romney was responsible….
tripe = Huffpo article
That’s a ridiculous ad. A lot of people, probably most, won’t even know what it’s referring to. And it shows a smiling man they repeatedly refer to as the President then at the end he’s walking along impressive columns into the light. Further, in case you haven’t noticed, Americans don’t give a damn about character today.
Obama’s going to win, as I predicted from the start.
Oh really? You think people are that shallow that all they need to see is a smiling face to be convinced? Don’t project, Zal.
That’s more like it, Zal. Just because you want that to happen doesn’t mean it will. And all the sour grapes you try to post to re-enforce that will do absolutely nothing.
Why don’t you just come out of the KoolAId Kloset already and get it over with?
Anybody who’s read my posts and thinks I want Obama to win a second term has a screw loose.
When I first read your posts, I was convinced you were a Concern Troll. After credible commenters convinced me you weren’t, I now just think of you like that crazy Uncle that says random. whack shit at the dinner table. No problem. It’s all good, Unc.
You got the troll part wrong and you’ve got the rest of it wrong.
In times like this, those who think for themselves and assess with a true ear and keen understanding are typically dismissed and disparaged by fanatics and their need to cling to a movement to feel big. But it’s these very movements that sink the ship.
Romney and his shills are as essential to our nation’s decline as Obama and his. You’re all drilling holes in the same ship’s hull.
“Uncle” Zal – look we all love you here, in spite of your obtuse and contrarian nature. But when one finds themselves out of step with more than 90% of the general population, one must ask themselves “Is it me?”
Take that advice or leave it. Just trying to shine the light on it for you.
Look up Cassandra.
Or watch this video and look at the old man who appears at 1:55 and again at 2:43.
Human nature doesn’t change. Only the names and dates and details.
The thing is that MR’s campaign can’t really do the mean stuff. My question is where are the super PACs on the other side? They are awash in $, yet not a one of them are hitting Obama on his weirdness and secretiveness about his past. I could make a miniseries just on the fact that even he admits most of the stories in his own “memoirs” is an outright fabrication. Instead the super pacs are doing ads based on policy. Morally upstanding, but they are going to lose big time unless they start getting in the game. I would pound on: 1) His making up his memoirs; 2) his Rezko/Blago connection; 3) his thugs taking out opponents in the past through criminal leaking of documents; 4) Solyndra; 5) F&F: 6) bowing to foreign leaders; 7) lavish vacations and golf outings; 8) one bumble-F–K after another over the last 4 years in one long string of video
They could but Mitt Romney won’t, for the reasons I’ve explained.
But more to the point, the Romney campaign won’t attack the President on the things he’s most vulnerable about (Wall Street, war, energy, jobs) because Romney doesn’t have something different to offer. The biggest problem the Romney campaign has is that Obama is as much a Republican as Romney is.
Most of the things you list that you think Romney should pound Obama about would make Romney look petty and without ideas for how to deal with the problems facing our President. Nobody who’s on the fence about whom to vote for gives a shit about Rezko or Obama’s memoirs or his golfing.
Think you’ve seen it all?
THIS one takes the fucking cake!
I’m not even going to share my thoughts. I’ll just leave the link:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/08/09/alter_on_obamacare_if_we_elect_romney_a_lot_of_people_will_die.html
And yet Obama is the one with the kill list! Go figure!
Exactly, Jay. That’s the point I would’ve made had my blood not been boiling or my last nerve been plucked when I saw that article
Alter is SUCH a tool. He gives tools a bad name
Hate to agree with my hometown rag (and I agree with JWS’ remark to me a few days ago that the Chicago Tribune takeover of the LA Times is also to blame for its downward spiral), but here’s Ronald Brownstein (here via the original National Journal article on the “Widening Racial Chasm.” Obama likely as in ’08 has 80% of “non-whites” locked up, and more women than Romney. Romney needs the “bitter clingers,” but they’re the shrinking cohort of white non-college males. These as we all know carried past GOP triumphs, but they are on their last stand even if R rallies them. The demographics are tipping with “Hispanics” or whatever the census will call them next time, and the GOP cannot rely on a “guns and religion” base to pull off many more national victories even if they scrape this out. I know JWS and I differ as to the Latino vote being 80%+ Dem for all time, but it does not look as if the GOP can erode its clout. This is one reason why I side with Zal, as to an O win, and increasingly marginal GOP representation in more and more of the country. While I do not support them as a party, I fear the one-party grip we have in L.A. and most of California bodes ill for crony capitalism masked as progressive claptrap, special interest pandering, and continued indifference to the common good. It seems this is a force that the Dems have harnessed. True, we all thought the South would never elect the GOP half a century ago, but do you all see any evidence of a GOP revival by a “non-white” shift. What do you think?
http://www.nationaljournal.com/thenextamerica/politics/widening-racial-chasm-an-issue-for-both-parties-20120810
Fio, I don’t think hispanic voters will swing to the GOP this cycle. Romney is not appealing enough. I do not think they are Dems “forever” however. That’s the myth being sold here. People like Brownstein only see race, not ideology. They interpret all racial numbers via the lens of black voters, who are dedicated to the DEMs, which is about racial issues by and large. Hispanics will evolve and shift. The social conservatives will look elsewhere for example. These pieces assume that the creative class/minority coalition is forever. That is just not true. It’s true right now because one politician is President and he is not white. This suits both of their impulses. I mean if a Clinton type emerges in 4 years the “bitter clinger working class” will go right back to the Dems. Things change.
The “Coming Democratic majority” is based entirely on assuming Hispanics, Jews, Asians, etc will never question the Democratic party simply because black americans haven’t seem to for so long. Yet the histories and expectation of these minorities are entirely different. How many immigrant groups landed here, voted for urban Dem machines, had kids who moved to the suburbs, who them became Republicans?
Thanks, JWS, for a thoughtful response taking the long view over the short-term. You raise a perspective I rarely if ever hear. I think one difference is that unlike other immigrants, the constant northward flow from south of the border ensures a Latino community that, as opposed to Irish or Italians, will resist assimilation as a whole even as particular families do move out to the exurbs and suburbs. And, the media facilitate now a culture which can be lived in the US with one’s native language–if enough speak it–as if one never left. We can see where we live majority-minority “suburbs” where English is heard less and less. It’d be interesting to find out if economic advancement in exurbs and inner-ring suburbs tempts immigrants and their offspring to vote more for the GOP. Although I rarely support Jonah Goldberg, the LAT’s resident right-winger, here he provides some support for the shift he advocates may tilt some Latinos–eventually. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-goldberg-gop-latinos-20120807,0,290918.column
Turn-out.
Run, I think of the campaigns and the superpacs as the same thing for purposes of discussion. It’s self evident that Obama’s camp, his superpacs, and lots of the media are working in tandem. The media really doesn’t even need direct contact. Alter proves it in Anthony’s link. Alter’s brain said to him “Yeah, Romney killed that woman, Romney bad, I must say something about Romney killing people.”
What Romney should or should not do himself is debatable. He probably should not be involved in direct assaults of the very mean variety. No need and it screws up his brand. The question is why aren’t the evil Koch brothers or the perfectly willing Rove and his crew in on an Obama take down yet. It’s not as if they have scruples. Perhaps they are waiting until September. But it’s a high risk strategy.
also, there is plenty to take down Obama with…without going to Wall street at all.
Perhaps they are waiting until September.
I believed that in 2008…but then I realized : When have they ever waited?
They don’t wait. They pile on.
US officials: al-Qaida gaining foothold in Syria
WASHINGTON (AP) — Al-Qaida has advanced beyond isolated pockets of activity in Syria and now is building a network of well-organized cells, according to U.S. intelligence officials, who fear the terrorists could be on the verge of establishing an Iraq-like foothold that would be hard to defeat if rebels eventually oust President Bashar Assad.
The Al-Qaida death squads we hired and supplied to take down Syria aren’t working out …
So presto ! changeo!
They now become the 9/11 Al-Qaida we must defeat in our war on terror! !
Al-Qaida is the best friend an aging Super Power can have!
The only terror we need to wage war on is our own. We need to let go of fear and demand peace.
A country constantly at war is soon depleted of it’s wealth and strength..any fool knows that.. Lasting prosperity cannot occur under constant war..
We have become a fearful, venal, and shallow people. {present company excluded of course}
What would the trade off be if we as a citizenry demand peace ?
The tribes of the Mideast have been killing each other for centuries, it’s part of their heritage. Then oil was discovered and they gained the anvil to hover over our heads, in their new found wealth they found way too much leisure time, and fanaticism kept growing.
Perhaps we need to take a hard look at our Energy Dept, and our way of life..That is where the trouble started. So what shall we fear, running out of gas, or running out of a liveable country ?
p.s. How can a country supposedly fighting a war on terror have Swiss cheese borders ?
There is no rational excuse for taking peoples’ lighters away, when they board a plane, but rolling out the red carpet across the Rio Grande and other points south. What’s up with that ?