Wednesday’s political round-up

August 22, 2007

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* Mitt Romney’s lead in Iowa continues to get bigger, at least according to a new Zogby poll. Romney now leads the GOP field with 33% support, followed by Rudy Giuliani, who is a distant second at 14%. Fred Thompson is third with 12%, followed by Mike Huckabee at 8%, and John McCain with 6%.

* Rudy Giuliani’s once-enthusiastic support for gun control hasn’t been a big campaign issue thus far, but Fred Thompson apparently hopes to change that. Thompson, in his latest online column, wrote, “When I was working in television, I spent quite a bit of time in New York City. There are lots of things about the place I like, but New York gun laws don’t fall in that category.” He went on to decry a recent court ruling on a gun case, writing that “the same activist federal judge from Brooklyn who provided Mayor Giuliani’s administration with the legal ruling it sought to sue gun makers, has done it again.”

* John McCain campaign’s financial troubles have been well documented, but apparently the senator is still not clear on why he practically ran out of money mid-way through 2007. On a blogger conference call this week, McCain confirmed that an internal audit is underway “to find out exactly what we spent.”

* Speaking of McCain, the senator’s new campaign manager, Rick Davis, has decided to try to save some money by getting McCain a less-fancy “Straight Talk” bus. “The next time we roll it out, [the new bus will] be much more like the original version,” Davis said. “A piece of sh*t.”

* The DNC is still deeply troubled by Florida’s decision to move its primary up to Jan. 29 in violation of party rules. The Politico reported, “The ugly elbowing over which states will go first in the 2008 presidential primary process is due to explode into open warfare Saturday as the Democratic National Committee decides what to do about ‘rogue’ states that are threatening to violate party rules. The DNC’s powerful Rules and Bylaws Committee is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. in Washington to decide primarily what sanctions to take against Florida.”

* And on speaking of the primary calendar, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) has used her discretion to move her state’s primary up to Feb. 5, from Feb. 26. Arizona will now vote on the same day as several other huge states, including California, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York.

Romney leading among those landline telephone poll-respondents. Impressive. Did he give a free landline to everyone on his bus-caravan to the Iowa Straw Poll?

Of course, just like the self-selection of online-polling, telephone poll respondents self-select in the sense that they choose to answer the phone and respond to the poll. It’s time for Corporate Military Industrial Media-blessed polling to step into the twenty-first century –especially since it has such a huge effect on the way people vote.

Why not couple these results with a random sampling of the tens-of-thousands of online poll respondents?

Do they really expect us to believe that 487 mysteriously-selected people in Iowa accurately reflect the zeitgeist of that state? Pfff.

  • telephone poll respondents self-select in the sense that they choose to answer the phone and respond to the poll.

    That’s not the same as the self-selection in web-polls, JKap. Phone respondents have to answer demographic questions that make the poll scientific. Pollsters have quotas for demographic criteria, and once a quota is filled, no more people from that demographic will be included in the poll. They may select to answer the phone, but their data won’t be counted.

    I’m inclined to believe the Zogby poll, and I think it’s pretty obvious Romney will be the nominee.

  • “the same activist federal judge from Brooklyn who provided Mayor Giuliani’s administration with the legal ruling it sought to sue gun makers, has done it again.”

    Forget attacking Giluiani’s gun control record — Thompson’s hanging an “activist judge” around his neck! Who likes activist judges? Rudy does!

    But I hear the Democrats are destroying each other on the campaign trail, so that’s the story to follow.

  • You’re basically only polling people who choose to answer the phone and participate in the survey. How can that be considered random?

    I’m inclined to say that the Zogby poll is arbitrary and meaningless –unless you’re only interested in people who answer their landline and participate in polls.

    By the way, do you know anyone who has ever participated in one of these polls? Anyone? I don’t. But it’s shoved in our faces daily that it is the consensus of a group or groups of people.

  • remember, this is in Iowa. Look at Rudy’s polling numbers across the rest of the US.

  • Do they really expect us to believe that 487 mysteriously-selected people in Iowa accurately reflect the zeitgeist of that state? Pfff.

    I happen to be a Zeitgeist in that state, and I can certainly say that a poll favoring the Oven Mitt does not relect me. 🙂

    Although, I will agree with Haik that the race is all but over and Mitt is the nominee. Just reality, like it or not. And for the record, I have been among the sample set in those polls, both media polls and candidate-sponsored. In fact I had an astoundingly detailed poll a week ago – took about 25 minutes, very interesting (and I thought impressive) methodology.

  • correct. don’t know that i would have had the patience for them burning 25 of my wireless minutes.

  • and speaking further of st. john and napolitano, a recent poll has her beating him 47-36 among registered AZ voters in a hypothetical senate race.

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