Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Romney, Obama, and the skewed polls

It amazes me how many Republicans are sadly shaking their heads, worried about the latest media reports proclaiming Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in trouble. The very people who tell me they don't believe a thing written by the mainstream media ... are now believing the doom and gloom "reported" by the mainstream media.

Wes Pruden, editor emeritus of The Washington Times, took a pragmatic view of it all in his column today, "Why the media spin on Nov. 6 is wrong." He started by writing:
A few more “really bad weeks” like last week for Mitt Romney and somebody will have to stick a fork in President Obama. He’ll be done.
In other words, don't get sidetracked by Obama's media cheering section.

Pruden went on to qualify his statement by adding:
Despite the hammering Mr. Romney took from the president and his media claque, he moved from 5 or 6 points behind in the Gallup Poll to a dead-even tie at the end of the week. Rasmussen, whose different methodology has made it consistently the most reliable of the polls, called the race dead-even as well.
Think about it. The United States Ambassador to Libya was murdered by terrorists in that country along with four other Americans, and the President seems to have barely been able to bother himself with the issue. In many countries, such aggression would be considered an act of war. To this president, it is barely a blip at a time when he is on the campaign trail day and night trying to win reelection to the White House.

In a stunning revelation, Americans learned that Obama refused to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but had time to make appearances on frivolous television shows like The View and David Letterman.

Pruden ended his column by asking voters to keep an open mind while stories of doom and gloom are dutifully trotted out by the mainstream media. He closed by noting:
A new website, unskewedpolls.com, attempts to redefine the data used by pollsters against actual voting results from both 2004 and 2008. Once crunched, their numbers show a Romney lead between 5 and 11 points. These numbers might not be “unskewed” so much as “differently skewed.” But they might be more accurate – or at least a warning that despite Chicken Little’s hysteria, the fat lady has not sung.
As with every election, it's not over until it's over.

Cross-posted at Bearing Drift

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