Comments on: Polling, Schmolling: Biggest News Not Hillary NH: But Seduction of Major Pundits/ Newsmen by Polls

By: Jillmz

Jillmz — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:53:29 +0000

Clarissa – to what extent do you think the possibility that women don't do enough on the frontline of creating and consulting on how polls are written and administered might affect the results? I heard Dee Dee Myers on MSNBC a couple of mornings ago and she talked about how she and other people she knew (she didn't specify them as men or women) felt something after Saturday night re: Clinton. Myers said she later realized that it was anger – that even people who will vote for anyone but Clinton just didn't like how she was treated or the tone of the exchanges.

If women had a hand in devising the polls between Sat. and Tuesday, do you think the polls might have been different? I don't actually know much about how many women ARE involved in making those polls, but don't you think this would be interested to look at, even if it's just to say it's a non-issue?

By: archangel

archangel — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:31:34 +0000

And as to exit poll helpers being 'young,' not sure what that meant. I think spirasol and cosmoetica and jakey have a common thread with many other observers also… a fatigue with the literal non-sensical.
dr.e

By: archangel

archangel — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:28:39 +0000

I think DLS, there were exit polls…. according to the cable news network reporters on scene that night in NH, the exit poll people were 'young' and 'untrained,' and “informally handing out papers to be filled out”… Too, there is a significant factor of reticence… many persons don't care to say who they voted for and why. I think the point has been well made that polling makes up too much of the news graph at this point. I dont know if polls can ever be reliable news. A study is different than a poll, as is a trial. The first has a longevity factor that polls usually seem not to, and the last, actually tests something for value or efficacy, neither of which seem a factor in current polls.

I'd agree DLS that it'd be more wise to quit the scrying and see how matters unfurl. I think for a lot of people its like trying to listen underneath a very loud raucous music broadcast to something far more significant

dr.e

By: DLS

DLS — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:28:35 +0000

Don't forget the news-by-the-minute and comical “analysis” here that is no better than what you can hear on the radio or observe on the teevee.

Wait until February 5 before drawing any major conclusions, and despite reluctance to use them or rely on them, rather than imagine or simply make up what people are thinking and doing and why, why not use exit polls to learn what they say they are thinking and doing, and why?

By: Jakey

Jakey — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:44:33 +0000

The results that came out in the Democratic elections in New Hampshire yesterday validate what some of us have long observed about our news media over the past 20 years. I personally only mostly listen to national public radio nowadays. I have long been a little cynical of what I see particularly of news coverage on television and that is why I am not surprised with last night's outcome in New Hampshire.
Instead of focusing more on the real serious problems the nation is facing and how the candidates weigh up on these issues, we see an emphasis on what I would basically consider to be secondary issues like a candidate's temperament, personality etc. Did Hilary cry today? Is Bill Clinton angry? Is Ron Paul too boring? Are they not human? These are the considerations that have taken up too much air time. I switch on my televison set each election season and I see a level of mediocrity in our media that beggar's belief.
I may not agree with Lou Dobbs on certain issues but I certainly agree with the comments he made on the CNN website today about the media coverage of the election season so far. He was right to point out that with just less than one percent of the US electorate having voted, the media had already started a crowning winner in the race for the Democratic nomination. This defies imagination. We have witnessed this same kind of manipulation and mediocrity for several past elections now and I believe the rest of public are finally beginning to see it for what it is.
I honestly think that the people of New Hampshire saved and nurtured our democracy yesterday, that God given right for an individual to seriously look at each and every candidate and how they stand on very important issues facing them and most of all make up their own minds without being “guided” or “prodded” to a particular outcome.
The moral here of the New Hampshire story is that people are more enlightened nowadays and can better separate the “wheat from the chaff”.
I will end with this quote. “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”.

By: All Spin Zone » What Happened with NH Polls?

All Spin Zone » What Happened with NH Polls? — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:11:23 +0000

[...] More thoughts on the amazing disconnect from TMV. [...]

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By: cosmoetica

cosmoetica — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:05:26 +0000

This is the most cogent aspect of the NH race. Ala 2004 & Kerry, what the hell are these guys doing?

Let's state this, for now and forever: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS 'SCIENTIFIC' POLLS! It is guesswork. Period.

By: spirasol

spirasol — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 09:32:03 +0000

I think I have become somewhat cynical. I don't much watch television news. Public relations, spin, polls, whatever you wanna call it seems to permeate our lives. You could be looking at the color blue, but unconvince yourself after seeing the majority opinion over and over again tell you it is red. They say Bush has spent millions on public relations for the war and for his administration. Despite all the opinions in Israel proper, the spinmasters would have us believe the Israelis are united under Zionist goals. And then you have poll after poll telling us the American people want us out of Iraq, yet no mainstream candidates will make that the life blood of their campaign. I want to believe in Hillary's tears and what they represent (an escape from the machinery that made her up), but wonder if that too, is controlled, manipulated. I wished that she would get rid of the man that is always standing behind her, ……and she did, momentarily anyway. I want to believe too, in Obama's borrowed MLK rhetoric, but they say he is as much in the pockets of corporations as Hillary is and that's right, –what Bill says about Obama; that he does not discuss specifics. Yes, listen with one ear closed, and follow the money, and the money behind the money.

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