Here's My Recipe:
1 Sara Lee Frozen Dutch Apple Pie
1 Oven
Electricity
The ability to read and comprehend directions
Vanilla Ice Cream
Patience
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS: While pie is cooling , go to Daily Kos and write a substantive diary. One that isn't three stupid sentences long and one that isn't a regurgitation of the same unsubstantiated rumors that a certain governor used a certain racial slur that no one can even confirm.
Now, for that substance.....
PLEASE STOP FLIPPING OUT OVER THE NATIONAL POLL NUMBERS PEOPLE !
I think, in light of the recent Gallup Poll and the response to Mc Cains little Palin bulge, that a little Pep Talk is in order. Now , as few know, I worked for a polling firm for four years, so I am not tripping out over these poll numbers because I know who's being polled and who isn't. But I also know that for Political Junkies, me telling you that isn't always going to relive the stress caused by unfavorable poll numbers for our candidate.
It's like a mother trying to calm her frightened child who's pointing at a large growling pit pull. The child believe he's in danger while mom is telling the kid it's okay because it's behind a thick iron gate. I am in no way comparing those who worry about Poll numbers to scared children. That's just the only analogy I can think of. I'm a little distracted by the aroma of Dutch Apple Pie right now, so cut me some slack ey? Or Pie.
Anyways, sure the polling appears to suggest that Barack Obama is losing support and that Mc Cain is taking away all these votes from Barack Obama simply because he put Sarah Palin , a far right wing conservative on his ticket. First of all, that doesn't even make sense and second of all it's not true. One thing that we need to remember is that Mc Cain may have went up a few points among the undecided, but he took nothing from Barack Obama.
But even that might not calm that little frightened child inside us all. So, I want you all to take a look at something. I found this chart a while ago on "ironically" ABC News.com. It's called SEE HOW THEY RUN It's easy to figure out how to use it. Basically , it gives you the breakdown of demographic groups who are supporting Obama and Mc Cain. I want you to take a look at that chart and study it for a little bit.
Now, what would you think if I told you that the majority of voters reflected in these national polls were 50 + White voters who own a home and have a land line phone and live in the Southern and Appalachia region of the United States ? What if I told you that Blacks , Asians , Latinos and voters under the age of 35 , are constantly under polled during Election Season, but consistently over perform at the polls on Election Day ? Would you finally understand why the national polling appears to suggest a race tighter than it actually is? Would you finally understand that TURNOUT TRUMPS POLLS is not a slogan , but a fact ? Would you then stop being afraid of the pit bull behind the gate?
UPDATE: 2004 Election
Let me give you an example of what I did at the Republican owned Polling Firm I worked for. During the 2004 Election , John Kerry was actually getting much more support than we were reporting because we were removing demographics that favored him while only turning in results that favored George Bush. The computer system we used was designed to not accept certain groups of people even though they answered all the questions.
When callers conducted interviews and entered the answers in the computer, if the answer was not what the client wanted , the system was designed to reject the interview and automatically go to the closing message thanking the person for their time. The call would be labeled "unqualified" because of dumb crap like , not a home owner , did not vote in 2000 even though they are registered to vote and intended to vote in 2004 , making less than 50,000 , refused to tell us what their race was , ect.
Our system was also designed to push poll to the point where a person who supported John Kerry at the beginning of the call was recorded as being a "Bush Leaner" by the end of the call. I'm not proud of it, but it was a job and I'm no longer doing that crap because I learned just how influential polls can be on the average public and I don't want to have a hand in deceiving people like. Especially against my own political interests.