Mysterious Polls
Ever since Alan Keyes entered the Illinois Senate race against Barack Obama, there have been reporters stating that polls show it is a hopeless endeavor for the Republicans.
Here’s a CNN article that tends to do the same…
Keyes was invited to the race after the original Republican nominee, Jack Ryan, dropped out. Polls show the Maryland transplant trailing Obama by 50 percentage points.
What polls? What were the questions? What area was polled? How many people were polled? Hmmmm…..they didn’t bother to tell us any of that.
After a little research, I found a Chicago Tribune poll that shows that Obama holds 41-point lead over Keyes.
However, the huge problem with this poll is the following …
Obama
Too liberal: 24%
Too conservative: 3%
Mostly agree with: 54%
Don’t know: 19%
Keyes
Too liberal: 10%
Too conservative: 30%
Mostly agree with: 17%
Don’t know: 42%
42% of those polled “Don’t Know” enough about Alan Keyes to make a decision on him. This is by no means the slam-dunk that liberals are hoping for and stating that it is.
Furthermore, this poll may have more problems…
The Chicago Tribune has refused to make public sampling data from its poll released August 22 that showed Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama leading Republican Alan Keyes by 41 points.
Why would they not make public the sampling data? I guess if the poll is skewed they wouldn’t. Interesting.
Note the short blurb in this article…
Obama with a 69to24 lead with 6% undecided dominates in almost every category. Keyes holds only a onepoint lead in the traditionally Republicanrich Chicago suburbs.
So, are we to conclude that Obama has a huge lead in the polls … except for those polls that show he doesn’t? I feel like these polls are being used to influence public opinion instead of inform. Otherwise, they wouldn’t bury the polls that show Keyes is competitive or hide sampling data that they used to get the results.
Politics is becoming more and more like psychology all the time. Propaganda is becoming the key tool in encouraging the public to action - or discouraging them to inaction, whatever the case may be.
Tags: Politics
