The polls need to be taken as real data despite their tilt in Democrat oversampling. For Republicans to believe that they are not real is like whistling past the graveyard. In Ohio, I can believe that Obama leads. We have 5 major cities, and at least four always report Democrat. (Cincinnati also reported Democrat in 2008). http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/states/ohio.html The real need here is getting out the rural/suburban vote in order to get Republican win.

I personally think that with Jennifer Brunner gone we can hope that the provisional ballots are more in line with other states. Hopefully, Jon Husted will put in place rules that allow ballots to be examined by the local boards of elections with the real lists of voters so that we don’t get another 206,000 provisional (not absentee) ballots (166,000 provisional ballots were accepted) clogging up the system like happened in 2004. These ballots are the ones that I believe show the chicanery of the system.

Either way, the real poll is that on November 2 (Michelle Obama).

GOTV drives will win this voter by voter. Nothing else will help as much as voters making concrete efforts to vote, display yard signs, bumper stickers and even volunteering in a campaign.at this point.
Ralph Reed has delivered his Christian voter guides to swing states and may contact up to 17 mil voters using multi media from email to texting , personal visits as well as US mail, reports Brody Files from CBN. Does Romney have a game plan asks CBN and Reed. If not state and county parties should have efforts to GOTV
Its not so much what the media say about Romney nor what he says.. This election’s victory is about how many voters the ground players, all of us from Romney across the nation , get out the vote. Turnout is the key. Lets prove the pollsters 2008 turnout model false.
Romney-Ryan 2012
.

All very good and well, Erick, but do remember this, the Obama Administration is a master of managing false perceptions and adroitly use their media allies to create alternate realities when the truth begins to bite them. So when the media pumps out polls that oversample Dems and even a few of the more trustworthy polls pick up their juiced results in compiling “poll of polls” averages, the result is the same: a message across America that their guy is winning and our guy is losing. As long as the one or two honest polls out there continue to show Mr. Obama upside down below 50%, and otherwise both candidates relatively even, all these polls are only a very rough barometer at this point with so many assumptions built in they reinforce the adage about “making an a** out of you and me” if we take them too seriously. Right now , polls are a distraction and Romney needs to keep his focus on what is wrong with Obama’s America and how he will fix it so we can convince the remaining 5 or 6% undecideds out there to help Republicans save America from the Great Disaster we face if Obama is handed four more years to finish us off as a nation of free people.

The amount of bandwidth these “new polls” are taking up is exactly what the central planners were hoping for. Maybe, just maybe they will backfire – not so much to fire up the GOP but the guy that’s trying to get our vote. If this is what it took for Mitt to get tough, at least maybe we can see a fight now. Let’sss get ready to rumble!!

I’m cautiously optimistic.
And he’d better be prepared for nonsense about contraception, rape, and gay marriage as well.
(Don’t mention Tiger Woods. That’s racist. :p )

Gallup in a 7 day average. Look back last week after the “47 percent” gaffe and there wasn’t an effect on that poll when it happen because I believe Romney was gaining the weekend before it actually happen (Rasmussen being a 3 day saw an effect right away and then back down by the weekend). His numbers actually maintained during that week. We are now seeing that back end of those days working their way through (the 7). I believe we will see a narrowing again by Saturday/Sunday.

He’s not a typical politician.

I’m not so sure the polls are real data any more. The response rate is so dismal that I don’t know what they are measuring. There is a difference between people who are happy to talk to pollsters and those who refuse. I’m just not sure what the difference is.

Party ID rises and falls with who people are voting for/against. More people decide they’re gonna vote for Obama, more people tell pollsters they’re Democrats. More people decide they’re gonna vote for Romney, more people tell pollsters they’re Republicans.

That’s why most pollsters don’t use an expected party ID to weight their polls- it’s always in flux, it’s what you’re trying to measure.

Moreover, every pollster asks about party ID in a different way. Some with different wording, some in different orders, sometimes twice (before and after asking about who they’re voting for), so you can’t compare party ID numbers from different pollsters. Rasmussen explained this all a couple days ago when he said this stuff about the polls being skewed was bunk. Ya’ll should listen to him.

You nail it. These polls are intended to discourage last minute funds to Romney, money that is needed given the 39M advantage BO has in the last month, and suppress enthusiasm from conservative ranks. Their excuse to oversample democrats based on historical voting, versus current party affiliations and identifiers, obviously gives a results oriented conclusion.

And the stories are already written about the debates, i.e. “Romney had no game changing moment” “Obama appeared poised” “Romney seemed flustered” so this is all the set up to that.

So why is Rasmussen poll different from
the other polls? According to his poll Obama & Romney are tied and if you
take learner’s Romney is ahead by two.

Team Romney must find a way to win news cycles without being caught in them.
The latter is more important, of course.
Make no mistake- Chicago has better ads and messaging. They find a way to come off as the good guys while lying. They won’t just drop off like Carter.
But that strength is illusory. The ball is in Boston’s court.

Oh, GMAFB. Erick (note the “k”) has been blasting the media for days now….please pay attention. What he’s saying is that we need to stop bitching and moaning and blathering about conspiracy theories. The polls may not be accurate, but they DO indicate some valuable things, such as trends.

I think a huge difference is that GOP voters were demoralized and tired four years ago. We didn’t fully understand the issues and we had a candidate in McCain who was inept in regards to the economy. He was a foreign policy candidate at a time when that took a big back seat.

I think Romney’s recent ad where he talks straight to the camera worked very well. I also think the Victor Davis Hansen got it right in his piece today – Romney must be positive while showing his competence. If he can show he has a better way in the debates and all Obama can do is blame Republicans for his problems then I think it will open up for Romney.

They have never stressed Romney’s turnaround ability enough – the fact that he has so often had to step into a situation where things seemed lost. Yet more often than not, Romney found a way. More importantly, Romney knew how to find the right people to help in the endeavor.

They also have not used the clip from Jane Edmonds at the convention at all. Here a black liberal Democrat woman declared that Romney keeps his promises, that he will listen to everyone, and that he’s a real leader.

Mitt Romney’s biggest problem is that he’s not a great campaigner and he’s not naturally a politician. People crave an outsider, a guy who has not been a career politician. Well folks, here he is. One term as governor and that’s it. Reagan was only ever an actor and governor. Romney businessman and governor.

The coal ad in Ohio is a good one. He needs to hit on Obama’s policies that raise the price of gas and utility bills. And he’s started that by talking about people who have to do more with less as pay shrinks and bills rise.

THIS is how you MUST reach out. Not with statistics, but by addressing the real worries of real people. Obama’s policies are killing upward mobility, they are killing the middle class, they are making your grocery bill go up, they are making your pay go down, they are making your gasoline bill go up, they are making your pay go down, they are making your taxes go up via Obamacare, they are making your pay go down, they are making your utility bills go up, they are making your pay go down, they are making your healthcare costs go up, they are making your pay go down.

Do we want four more years of higher bills and lower pay or do we want four years of lower bills and higher pay created when the economy is unleashed?

No… but Rasmussen’s tracking poll oscillates weekly. Look at it over the past several months; Romney does better when the polling is taken Friday-Sunday; Obama does better when the polling is during the week. It’s there. Every. Week.

Which means, since people simply don’t flip on a dime every week, that WHEN you poll determines WHO answers the poll.

Which means unweighted polls are bunk.

Cellphone meme again. Irrelevant.

Republicans with landlines and Republicans with cellphones answer the questions the same way. So do Democrats and Independents.

According to WaPo, their poll was likely voter – when I looked at the internals 87% of the people in the poll were likely voters. That would be a historic turnout of the electorate. You can not call your poll predictive of the population with the large sampling errors that are in the public polls unless you are by some statistical method modeling your data. I am not guessing the pollsters aren’t doing that; they are admitting they are not. Now, unskewedpolls is wrong as well because you can’t just assume that a) Rassmussen has the right turnout or b) that PartyId notification in Rassmussen = party id in WaPo what you can say with assurance is it is not 1932 (no matter how much Obama tries to say he took over the Great Depression part 2) so the Republican turnout will probably be well north of 25% of the electorate especially in Ohio and Florida where Republican Governors and Senators seemed to find enough Republicans to get elected.

Actually Nate Silver tried to run a hit on Rassmussen that turned out, Nate hadn’t actually read the article on bias in robo calls because all of that bias was in one firm…you guessed it PPP so Nate Silver aimed a hit at Scotty Rassmussen and it landed on PPP who understandably objected strongly to being called hacks by a hack.

One thing Romney needs to do is bring out Ad’s that counter Obama’s Ad here in IA, Obama is running Ad’s that Romney will increase taxes on the middle class by $2,000.00 and give a $250,000.00 tax break to millionaires people believe its the true that R & R only care about the rich.

Erick tells us Romney is “losing” and/or “behind” at least 3 times in the column. Stopped counting. Of course, one can NEVER prove that one is right or was right concerning polls since the election is not held THAT day. What such pundits do after the polls turn around is to say that they turned around BECAUSE the candidate they said was “losing” changes course or because of some event like a debate moment. The fact is that voters suffering under Obama are not so fickle. The wallet controls.

Because Erick Erickson is enough of a realist to know that if the election were held today, Romney would lose.

Erick doesn’t want Romney to lose. Neither do I. But what we want is different from what would really happen.

And Erick, like myself, understands that the first step toward fixing a problem is to admit that there is a problem. If we’re all sure that Romney is going to win, then nothing about his campaign needs to change: Not his speeches or his staff or his proposals.

But Erickson and others on RS have been pleading for Romney to make changes, precisely because they fear that if he doesn’t, he will lose.

And they’re right.

I am guessing that one of the negatives you received was from a Bill S or maybe eric, because you don’t agree with their narrative. Anyway I partially agree with you and think you are right with the undecided. As you have demonstrated critical thinking is hard to come be these days, well done

Whether its sports, or war, or politics, you have to be able to function in a difficult environment and still be able to come from behind to win. If just being behind is so demoralizing that you can’t function, then you shouldn’t be in that field at all.

he needs to think “white hair, big belly”, and “go nuts”

I wanted a true conservative, but we have Romney. If the election where held today who know who would win according to the polls out right now. They are Push Polls, do you know what those are? Read the definition and get back to me. False data is False Data. My Beef is not with Eric its with the Media and Eric is playing off of the Medias Narrative

The analysts are biased =/= Mitt’s campaign should just continue doing what it’s been doing
It seems to be in the middle of a turnaround, in fact, and we’ll see the fruits of that over the coming weeks.

Another suggestion: Since Romney has such a problem with getting air time…I suggest that Fox start playing up Romney clips and let the people hear for themselves instead of focusing ALL their attention on the evilness of Obama.

And Team Romney must find some way to prevent Obama and his media pals from coming up with hit pieces every other day, that only disrupt the campaign.
A firm critique of corruption (Porkulus, Dodd-Frank, Obamacare etc.) would destroy the Obama administration’s fake facade of transparency and make those policies even more unpopular, for example, yet many people don’t know about these cases.
Or perhaps the fact that Obama, the ultimate insider, saying that he can’t change Washington from the inside because he needs voters to change it from the outside, is actually blaming Americans for his failures.

Pundit discouragement fraternity. A “sugar high” daily tracking poll boost for Obama and now Romney is losing!

I for one are getting so tired hearing about polls. But then most news outlet have a hard time coming up with something good to report about Obama.

Fact is, we are suspicious ad he evidence there is a ‘house effect’ bias towards Dems is clear, but we wont know for sure whether the polls were biased or accurate until after the election. For that reason, I think arguing about polls or wasting too much energy on the topic is a rabbit trail. Just ignore as “not valid input”.

Better we focus on the real challenge in winning: Messages that win and defeat the failed, incompetent Obama and the Democrats in Congress who support his job-killing agenda.

I am going to write the next article at Politico
Headline: Leading Conservative Commentator Erick Erickson admits Romney is finished
Today leading conservative, Erick Erickson lent his voice to the growing number of conservatives such as David Brooks and Peggy Noonan are concerned Romney has lost the election. Erickson: “I’ve been in politics long enough to know that the louder one side gets complaining about the polls, the more likely it is that this is the side that, in reality, actually is losing. Here’s a simple truth: the polls and polling trends are by and large accurate…The reality is that Mitt Romney is behind…the Romney team knows they are behind. I’ve also thought they knew they did not know how to turn it around.”
I took Erick wildly out of context and completely changed his meaning but I didn’t misquote him. When has Politico ever had a problem with finessing what someone said to fit their meme?

Hey Erick I noticed the “K”. Thanks I really needed the wake up call. Now back to the polls Rasmussen still has it tied and knowing their history they are a better barometer. Name calling on the other hand is quite sad diminishes your argument.

Becker, I couldn’t agree more with you. These polls are DESIGNED to put forth the narrative that Obama is running away with the election. Conservatives SHOULD scream about their unbalanced sampling for two reasons: 1) The last thing we need is a depressed conservative and GOP turnout, and polling showing Obama WAY ahead will do nothing but encourage that nonsense 2) Independents, who often vote with the guy who is winning, may be swayed by nonsense polling. As for the idea that “Romney knows he is behind”…what COMPLETE AND UTTER BULL****. Romney is far too smart to be duped by this crap polling. His ground game is far better than McCain’s was, and his skills of campaigning and debating are superior as well. This will be a fight to the end, but no one in their right mind thinks Obama’s winning this thing.

Bill…love ya man, but Erick is WAY off on this one. “Complaining about polling” doesn’t mean a side is losing, but rather that a side is justifiably calling BS on polling that is oversampling Dems…even more so than exit polling from the 2008 election (when people were jumping on the Obama bandwagon in droves). The economy has gotten worse, gas prices doubled, and we’re now $16 trillion in debt thanks to Obama. Who in their right mind believes that the 2008 LV model will even remotely resemble 2008? Rove actually had a very accurate and skilled assessment of the polling disparities last night on O’Reilly. I’m sick and tired of this false (and intentional) narrative put forth by left-leaning pollsters (or those intimidated to skew their numbers Dem by the White House..see Gallup) that can only serve to drive down enthusiasm on our side and sway Indies to Dems. Depressing our turnout is the only way Obama can win…and calling BS on the slimy polling tricks they are using does not concede “being behind”. Erick is off-base here.

Bill threw you a softball eh? Doesn’t look like he wanted you to strike out. Looks like a double off the wall to me.

You were prescient:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/09/erickson-sounds-another-romney-alarm-136735.html

Thank you.

CW

One question: Are the sampling methods accurate? Is there a 9-16 point Dem LV advantage? If you say yes, you are either delusional or dishonest. If you say no, you make the point of those you are speaking to.

NEW registration? Perhaps.

But in general, you are not correct.

Look at Florida:

http://election.dos.state.fl.us/nvra/affiliation.asp

41% democrat, 36% republican, 24% other/none.

As far as new registrations, the League of Women Voters in FL is back registering voters. I would not bet that the gap of new registrations stays the same.

I don’t have any stats for other states, I will take your word at it. I believe the convincing evidence is that the polls are essentially accurate.

You’re right. Several people have taken those same polls and attempted to un-skew the data to get a more accurate poll.

Ugh more bad advice.

If Romney runs an ad that says “Tim Geithner” 100 people on RedState will say “interesting, well done” and 100,000 people who see it will say “who? what?”.

The bases are locked in. All the fighting is over the 3-5% of the voters who will vote and are not locked in. And Tim Geithner is not one of the issues that’s going to turn the tables.

There are 4 or 5 new cycles left before the election. 2 at least will be about the debates. The current one is about Romney is losing.

This is it.

Is David Brooks retiring?

“Socialist”? You mean Dumbcrat

A couple more points to add to the good ones above:

The absorption in poll data is driven by need of distraction from the
left, and the need to keep Republicans energized and involved on the
right. Both need to keep pre-election content analysis in media
carefully balanced for months between complaisance and despair, which is a newly developing social science.

As I’ve said, Romney is saving his most important material and his best messaging till closer to the the election date – the specific messages the R/R team want in the voters’ minds right as they walk into the voting booth; especially the indies and disenchanted O voters’ minds.

Attack ads placed in the last couple weeks or days leading up to the
election begin to resemble a fog of war. When someone with a lifetime of
troubles finally comes to a psychologist in hopes of improving his
relationships, or a person in a world of pain walks into her physician’s
office, the person hiring the health professional does not want to hear
a litany of blame as the remedy. A list of attacks on smothering
mothers, absent fathers, which siblings were loved best, recitations of
how many other folks are suffering with her disease, or expressions of
anger as to ‘why this had to happen to poor you’ will not inspire
confidence in the healer’s skill.

The same dynamic is crucial to voters. The most important message for
2012′s undecided voters, the wavering ‘devil you know’ voters, the
‘anybody but Obama’ yet unreliable voters, was already tested and
briefly communicated at the Republican Convention: “My promise is to help you and your family.”

That’s what a patient wants to hear when he or she is unwell, and what
the voter wants to know when his job is at risk, and his country’s economy and security are floundering. That’s what the Romney team will focus upon as the date to GOTV draws near. The saturation of attack ads will begin to lose meaning and no longer will get the attention of a battle weary public.

The precise moment when the Obama campaign will be at the greatest risk is then: *when hate ads and divisive tactics cease to be effective*. That’s the moment when Romney/Ryan will best present a well articulated program of simple yet memorable specifics to heal both the worried consumer’s pocketbook and the national Carter-like malaise. That will be the national moment of action for the GOP’s best opportunity for our success.

I too have used the words “biased polls” or something similar. What I think was meant is the poll data is skewed by DRI splits benefiting Dems, which produces a biased result. This aids Dems in fundraising and depressing Romney supporters. At least thats what I would mean. Agree with your post.

“The rationale is to demoralize Republicans and suppress turnout ”

OK, you didn’t use the word. You just implied it. You cited exactly zero “facts” to prove that assertion, other than to cite inaccurate poll weights.

You might open yourself up to a lawsuit there; the cockroach union is liable to sue for slander.

Geez Bill, you’re really stretching today, huh? So I’m understanding that in “Erick’s reality” math doesn’t count as “facts”.

You have my sympathy, this crap is impossible to defend. Erick’s simply beclowning himself, I hope you don’t get hit with the makeup splatter.

Here’s the problem, there nothing about taking action and functioning. Just BS from EE on polls. Not a word on activisim or what to do to combat it. We are in the 2 minute drill and need action. Yet, crickets from RS. Gee, lets all use our new iphone5! is there an elect romney app?? How bout a few links and encouragement to make a few calls on those new phones for Romney? Not a single word about it.

I want factsthat prove that polling firms are intentionally skewing poll data to benefit Barack Obama…and/or that that data is being done on behalf of biased media outlets.

Such facts/evidence doesn’t exist. Those who continue to peddle the line that it IS happening are doing nothing but promoting unfounded speculation.

There is no question that polls are skewed by percentages that don’t seem realistic. I get that. But there are explanations for that that have nothing to do with a plot to reelect Obama. This article is helpful understanding this.

What I want to see stop is this silliness that there’s some insidious plot to depress turnout. If someone has evidence of that, fine – produce it. The fact that polling is inaccurate is NOT evidence of that.

Where are the diaries by EE on GOTV?
on taking grass roots action??
The defeatist “i told you so’s” are worthless. 40 days to go, and nothing on what action people should take.

Not one link or FP diary on giving any money to Romney.
Not one link or FP diary on making calls for Romney from home.
why?

Erick needs to consider turning over the torch to someone else if RS retains its grass roots mission. EE has pursued a political pundit, horse race caller tack in media, not a grass roots activist/defender of conservatism.

Look at his CNN primary performances. He sat back and largely made fun of the field and distanced himself from them, rather than educate the CNN audience on benefits of conservatism. Hardly a defender of conservatism.

His support for Romney has been terrible so far in the general. Most of his diaries are doom gloom I told you so messages. Was EE passed over for a campaign spot? His messaging smacks of crying over spilled campaign advisor milk.

I think many people would like clarification of the future of RS. Does the grass roots activism mission statement exist???

The changes to the site have killed the community effect. We can debate “page views” all day long, but I guarantee the community participation is down huge and organic RS activity is down. Page views may be maintained by changes on the site, disqus and the addition to human events articles etc…..The meat of the site, commenting and diaries, are Wayyyy down and community input has been obviously shrunk on home page. My own activity is probably down 70-90% and I’m listed as in the top ten or so commenters.

Since EE and FP can’t seem to find any info to post, here is the link to make a few calls for Romney.

We need action the last 40 days, not effing campaign bellyaching and effing punditry!!! Our country is on the GD line!!!!!

http://www.mittromney.com/call-home-landing

yep, take valuable time and digital ink to rip your own team during the 2 minute drill for a final scoring drive for the win? That’ll really work!!!! Take action, move the chains, get out on the field to Block and tackle? nahhh that’s for those fat guys and peons.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81729.html?hp=t1 – Romney do or die cites skewed polls as reason
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81738.html – Wall Street donors think it’s over – cites skewed polls
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81376.html – Romney jangles the nerves – cites skewed polls
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81320.html – Why Obama’s the greatest man in the history of men cites skewed polls

This is only Jonathan Martin, heck I could go all day on him – do you want me to go for a week of Ezra Klein or Chris Cilizza or Rick Klein or Nate Silver? What are these guys doing? They are using skewed polls purchased by their media company to support a meme that the race is over and finished. We are to believe that the reporters are biased but that they skewed polls they use aren’t? What are Silver, Martin, the Kleins and the Fix just lucky those polls are skewed in their favor?

I actually do believe the sampling bias is accidental (basically a function of how the sample is collected) but the refusal to adjust to it is not and the explanations you hear from pollsters like Schwartz is unadulterated bullcrap. The pollsters know they don’t need to be all that accurate right now (and historically they are not in September/October), they need to be accurate right before the election so the next cycle, they can claim accuracy. I also don’t buy the notion that large populations swing like a pendulum on a clock and then settle down the last couple of days because of undecideds. Large populations regress to a mean, pull up a recliner and squat.

One thing about this post from Erick that I can fervently agree with is that there is WAY to much focus on polls – to the point that – as you put it “the growing disaster in Libya is not getting remotedly the attention that is warranted.

But I disagree with the characterization of both sides being equally obsessed with polls and see it more like this:

Conservative media right now is eager to talk about foreign policy (this is based on my totally unscientific impression based on what I perceive as the main content on conservative websites) and many developments that reflect VERY poorly on Obama.

Liberal media is eager to talk endlessly about polls, the September Surprise that they’d been saving since May, and generally trash the Romney campaign and declare him hopelessly behind.

BUT

Since the liberal media starts making outrageous claims like “New poll has Obama up by double digits” the conservative media almost HAS to respond to point out (as you’ve done also) that they are being absurdly optimistic about Democratic turn out. (though it’s also my impression that they are overestimating the number of people still registered as Democrat — which is similar but actually quite different)

I don’t really follow what you’re saying when you say the polls are basically accurate but they overestimate the number of Democrats. In what sense, then, are they accurate?

Overstating the number of Democrats sounds to me like the definition of “skewing a poll”

It’s not as though the liberal leaning sources (and here I am going to admit to believing that some elements of the media see it as their job to re-elect Barack Obama) are producing headlines like “If Obama gets EVEN MORE Democrats turning out than in 2008- and Romney gets even fewer Republicans – Obama’s ahead by 10″

They skip to the supposedly commanding lead without bothering to mention all the caveats.

In the end, regardless of what the polls say – we should all be doing whatever we can to help Romney – but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a game being played.

At the very least, it is far from a neutral choice to assume a 2008 turn out model.

As to RCP conspiring — it’s not necessary for them to be in on any conspiracy for their data to be skewed.

EE’s focus is all wrong. It’s Romney vs. Obama, pick one and promote him. it is not comparing Romney to a perfectly run campaign and pointing out the faults. Try raising a kid like that, point out all his flaws and he’ll seem like a loser and you will look like a negative nellie.

I’m done in this thread. If you guys want to run around spouting paranoid conspiracy theories, go right ahead.

Sorry Bill but you’re projecting.

i’m w/ya rick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRtHiuC9ppU&feature=plcp

Absolutely. Honestly, who needs enemies these days? We have all the friends we can stand.

You know what is really funny? Right beside this post is an ad marketing a DVD that chronicles 40 people who voted for Obama in 2008, but won’t in 2012.

That same exact thought crossed my mind. It reminded me of when Anna Nicole Smith had a reality show, and one of the episodes was about how irritated she was with her interior designer. When she confronted him, he said, “Look, I’ve been doing this for a loooong time.” Turned out it was one year.

First of all you’re an idiot. You’ve managed to swill enough koolaid to ignore the real issues here and I’m not going to bother to rehash what’s been said 1000 times here and elsewhere.

I will note however, the only “wounded” who are being shot would be Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. And one of the front line shooters is Erick Erickson.

You’re on the list too, but you’re pretty far back in the firing squad line.

I get that anti Romney tax plan ad in neighbor Wisconsin.

Here’s my problem with both this argument and the logic that “polling firms aren’t going to sacrifice their credibility by intentionally skewing the results”

let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that the polling firms (or the people who hire them) DO have the agenda of:

A) Changing the subject so as few people as possible learn the extent of recent foreign policy disasters

B) Convincing casual voters that whatever is happening in the middle east or with the economy Hey – It can’t be too bad, Obama’s up 8 points in PPP! (unfortunately, this type of thing DOES work)

C) Taking Republicans off message by forcing them to deal with polls that claim their candidate is way behind

D) Encouraging in fighting among panicking Republicans.

E) Discouraging Republicans either by 1) hoping some of them believe the polling or more likely 2) Further infuriating them and reminding them just how much they are up against the media.

I don’t think you have to believe in conspiracies to think a lot of liberal media types would LOVE to have us thinking “How can Romney win when the MSM attacks his every move and constantly covers for Obama.

F) Encourage bandwagon jumping among independents.

Let’s say – again, for the sake of argument – that their efforts to create a self fulfilling prophecy are partially successful: and they manage to keep the attention of casual voters away from inconvenient developments, reassure Democrats and discourage Republicans — resulting in Obama doing a great deal better than he would have otherwise — that wouldn’t mean the original polls were honest. It would just mean that they were successful manipulators.

Amen. It is mind-boggling to me how the GOP pundit class thinks that criticizing Romney every day of the week is an effective strategy for victory. The Left is evil and corrupt, but at least they have the intelligence to stand by their candidate rain or shine. Not us. We will shoot first and ask questions later.

For people who are supposedly so media savvy, it amazes me that they do not realize that these days (unfortunately) the media shapes news rather than reports it. We Conservatives make up a small, but growing piece of the media pie. Yet instead of fighting the media machine and shouting from the rooftops the merits of our candidate, we spend useless energy tearing them down.

One of the groups who gets this is Breitbart. They are taking it to the media machine daily. Others should be standing beside them doing the same.

No, there is a difference. Google it….

Big time hallucinating.

There is nothing more entertaining than watching the right-wing bury their heads in sand and cling onto the notion that all the polls are wrong. I find it quite sad really. Your side is losing, it’s about time you come to grip with it. The American electorate is not dumb and not falling for you “Obama ruined the economy” meme, which is why OBAMA IS WINNING! This disputing of the polls is like 2008 all over again, in fact this race very closely mirrors Obama vs McCain 2008. “The polls are wrong!” “Liberal lame stream media slant!”, “BS!!”. Have you guys not learned your lesson? Why do you think the pollsters are suddenly lying when they didn’t lie in 2010? Or 2008? Or 2006? Or 2004? Why would they suddenly pull out bogus numbers for 2012? Fact of the matter is Obama is winning and the denial will not help you a single bit come election day.

Ciao!

Actually, I think the media is enemy #1, and obama or any other DEM are #2. Neutralize the media in any significant way, and the DEMS are exposed.