Illegitimi non carborundum

On Friday Human Events published an interesting piece on how the main stream media is selectively using polls favoring Obama to demoralize Republicans and hopefully depress the McCain vote. 

Typical headlines in recent days include "Polls Point to Struggle for McCain" (Post) and "Polls Show Obama Gaining Among Bush Voters" (Times) -- both items running on October 24.  Similar stories appear on virtually a daily basis, showing eight to ten point national margins for Obama and similar Obama numbers in crucial states for John McCain, such as Ohio and Virginia.  

In state-level surveys, the Post this week (October 27) ran a top-of-page-one story about the campaign in Virginia, headed "Poll Gives Obama 8-Pt. Lead in Va." Unmentioned by the Post was an October 24 Mason-Dixon poll, a respected source on southern elections, that showed McCain ahead by three points in Virginia (47-44). Evidently no poll can make it as a Post news story unless it shows Obama winning by a hefty margin.

Likewise ignored by the Post and Times are polls that show McCain winning by two points in Florida (Mason-Dixon, October 23; Strategic Vision, October 22), leading by two points in Ohio (Strategic Vision, October 22), ahead by a percentage in Missouri (Suffolk University, October 19), winning by two points in North Carolina (Rasmussen, October 24), and so on. These results, also within the margin of error, suggest a close election far different from the landslide being predicted by the Post, the Times and some of their media brethren.  

Look at enough of these survey data, and it's apparent that, for the establishment media, the polls are a weapon selectively used to create a bandwagon psychology for Obama and spread defeatism among his opponents… 

The good thing about conservatives is that we tend to think for ourselves.  The Obama campaign has done everything they can to stack the deck.  Call their bluff – Make sure to vote on Tuesday!



Marianne